Into the Web
by Darien Fawkes
Summary: In a new move, Vrak creates a new threat to the Rangers, one born of a danger that almost ended them before. Will this new predator succeed where others have failed? Especially when issues within the team threaten dangerous divides.
1. Chapter 1

**Legal: **I do not own Power Rangers or the associated names, characters, places etc. Anything not covered by the above rights should be considered purely the creation of the author.

**Rating:** T – There will be some adult themes.

It was a dark night in Harwood, and it was far later than any of them were ever used to being out. It was only by virtue of the fact it was now the summer break that Noah could be out so late without his parents really worrying. He had told them he was doing an experiment to document an astrological phenomenon. He didn't need to be too specific, as usual their eyes glazed over the second he mentioned something that sounded vaguely scientific and just told him it was fine and to call them when he got to his friends' place to let them know he was alright. He was currently on top of a tall apartment block, using its elevation for a better signal for his equipment.

Recent weeks had been difficult for him. He wasn't exactly one to concentrate on matters of the heart, but just like any guy, it wasn't like he didn't get feelings. He just wasn't usually ruled by them. When other guys had spent the last couple of years with their hormones over-ruling their brains, causing them to behave like a bunch of goats, head butting each other and prancing to attract the gaze of the girls, he just concentrated on his own thing, his science and his studies.

When he figured out Spider's plan, his only concern was to ensure Emma didn't get caught up in it. He had worked as quickly as possible to figure out where and how his main strike would go down, checking the plant's schematics to find out where he would have to place a bomb that was relatively weak in order to cause an explosion large enough to take out the whole complex. In the battle itself, he had Spider cornered. He knew it wouldn't take too much to take him down. Although he wasn't the most physical of guys, with his Ranger rig, he knew that Spider would be no match for him. However, in his last gambit, he had activated the bomb, forcing Noah to concentrate on that and let him go.

Then, in the moment he knew he couldn't stop the bomb, when he knew that the only thing he could do was to try and stop the blast from the device which he knew wasn't powerful enough to cause structural damage from rupturing the main tank.

He winced as he collected another piece of equipment. While his ribs were healing, they were still tender. It was only his Ranger rig that had saved him. He, more than the others, perhaps even more than Emma, was intent on finding out where Spider was. It was as much a distraction for him as anything else. Although it had been a couple of weeks, it still hurt more than his ribs when he thought about finally plucking up the courage to speak to Emma. He had bought a fake bouquet from the hospital gift shop, knowing she wouldn't appreciate a real one. He had spent a long time in his room rehearsing what he was going to say, and to pluck up the courage to finally tell her what she meant to him.

He took an unnaturally long time to walk from his hospital room to hers. The corridor seemed to go on forever, and he felt ill as he walked towards the room. As he finally got there, and rounded the corner, he was just in time to see her in Troy's arms. They were too busy kissing to even notice he was there. His heart sank in his chest, and he felt incredibly ill. He just walked away, leaving them to it.

Since then, he'd had the joy of sitting on the sidelines for the show. Everywhere he looked, Emma was hugging Troy...Troy was Kissing Emma...Troy was explaining to the others how lucky he was to have found Emma...Emma was talking about how amazing Troy was and how brave it was that he sacrificed himself to save her. He hated feeling this way, but it was all more than a little sickening, and he was starting to resent Troy for his actions. He felt like Troy had stolen the glory somewhat, throwing himself on Emma making it more obvious to her of his actions. Noah was the one who had the foresight to smother the bomb. He was the one that had REALLY saved them all, but Troy was the one she looked to with the admiration that should have been his. He was glad for any task to keep his mind off the happy couple.

Vrak's attack on the Juvenile Detention Centre had been somewhat of a bizarre move, one that had resulted in Gosei calling them in. They didn't know exactly what his objective was, but since there was logically no items there of any value to him, and just short of a dozen of the inmates had not been accounted for, they had to assume that there was some connection. Gia, despite being reprimanded for not answering her morpher while she was at the Brainfreeze, still insisted she needed to work there until Ernie was ready to return. Emma was a little edgy about the idea of Spider still being around, and Troy...well of COURSE Troy just had to jump on the opportunity to play the hero and protect her. Noah volunteered to patrol to search for the missing fugitives, along with Jake and Jordan.

As he checked up on his equipment, surveillance equipment of his own design, he hacked into the police transmissions once more to listen in for new reports. Although a few missing underage offenders were hardly the top of Gosei's list of priorities and not really what he normally wanted the Rangers to concentrate on, since they had gone missing with Vrak, he had insisted that finding them would eliminate the possibility that they were the reason Vrak had attacked. He was listening in for sightings, and more importantly, reports of petty crimes. Being on the run, they would have few means, and need to find food, shelter, possibly even transport if they planned to flee the city.

There weren't many left unaccounted for, only about half a dozen. In the panic, many of them had run just to get to safety, but they knew that staying away would only cause them more problems in the long run. Being so young most weren't exactly hardened criminals with the means to go on the run for good, and most of them knew their criminal records would be wiped clean when they turned 18. For most of them, it wasn't worth doing anything other than turning themselves in once the panic died down.

That still left a couple that were taking their chances. As Noah listened in, he heard jets, followed by a loud metallic clang as Jordan landed behind him.

"Caught another one." Jordan informed him.

"Did this one end up going to Juvie, or did he also end up in the ER?" Noah sighed. Jordan, for some reason none of them really understood, was taking this whole mission a little too personally. While he was getting better, he was the first to admit that many of his battles hadn't exactly been master classes in control. He had made his disdain of the inmates of the detention centre pretty clear already, when he wanted to go after Vrak instead of keeping the inmates safe during the attack. Now, two days into their mission to round up the missing inmates, he had just apparently caught his second inmate. While he had said that the guy resisted, Noah and Jake did express concern that when he ended up in hospital with two broken legs that Jordan's use of force was more than a little excessive. It was doubtful anything the kid could have done to Jordan would affect him.

"He's in the detention centre's clinic." Jordan said a little gruffly, almost like this was an acceptable compromise. Noah just shook his head. He didn't know what Jordan's problem was. It wasn't like these guys were Warstar, or Mutants...they weren't even Loogies. Despite what they may or may not have done, they were human, and certainly no match for a Ranger.

"Just...remember we are meant to be the good guys." Noah reminded him. "I'm sure our public image will be better if we return them in one piece."

"They'll live." Jordan replied. Just then, Jake arrived, clipping him across the back of the helmet, with a metallic ring.

"Hey!" Jordan snapped. "My helmet's metal, do you have ANY idea how loud that is in here?"

"Jeez, way to over-react." Jake answered sarcastically. "Dude, it was a joke."

Jordan just muttered something under his breath.

"So, I brought one more back." Jake told him, handing him a note with the name on it. "So, what does that leave us with?"

"By my count, that leaves three unaccounted for." Noah said, scoring the name off the list. "Reece Terrence, Quinton James and..."

His words tailing off told them all they needed to know. Spider was still unaccounted for. Of course, they knew that Noah wasn't really too worried about what happened to Spider, it was more that he didn't want him at large because Emma was worried about him coming back.

"Well, I doubt we're going to get much more done tonight, that's three AM." Jake remarked, de-morphing. "Even crooks need to sleep some time."

"I guess that's hard to argue with." Jordan said, sounding almost disappointed as he recalled his armour into himself. "Same time tomorrow?"

"I guess so." Jake yawned as Noah also de-morphed. Jake and Jordan started to head for the fire-escape. None of them actually lived here; they were just using the rooftop as a convenient location for Noah's surveillance outlook. Noah just started to shut down the equipment when they heard the roof access door rattling. They all looked at each other, uncertain as to what to do. None of them had ever seen anyone out here. It wasn't like there was much to see or do out there; it was another thing that made it an appealing spot to set up. They were unlikely to be disturbed.

Noah started to conceal some of his equipment, while Jordan and Jake got a head start down the fire-escape. He was just getting up to leave when there was a face right in his. There was a shriek, and both of them jumped back in fright, falling onto the roof. Noah scrambled to his feet, and was about to go, when he saw the other person struggling a little.

It was a young girl by the looks of things, quite skinny in build and very pale, with long dark hair. She was wearing a green sweater and white jeans...well...they HAD been white until she fell onto the dirty roof, and a pair of white trainers. Seeing a pair of glasses nearby, he realised she had to be looking for them. All things considered, his eyesight wasn't really that bad, but he still needed them for reading and finer details. Obviously this girl really needed hers.

Picking them up, he took her wrist in his hand, and pressed the glasses into her palm, allowing her to take them.

"Here." He said quietly, allowing her to accept them. She sat up, putting her glasses on her face, and blinking a few times to focus. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm..." She started to say, before looking up at him. It was then that he recognised that she was one of the girls at his school. She took his hand as he helped her up. "I'm...I'm fine."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." He told her. "Um...I'm just..."

"Noah, what are you doing here?" She asked. Crap! He had been made. It was bad enough that he recognised her as...someone...from his school. He wasn't too good with names, he only really hung out with the guys, but he had a practically eidetic memory when it came to faces, he could always remember who a person was and how he knew them whenever he saw them, even if he didn't remember their name. He could remember seeing her around.

"I...um..." It was a good question really. He didn't live here. He didn't live anywhere near this building. He couldn't think of a reasonable excuse as she stared at him. She looked past him and saw his equipment and smiled. "You're here for the meteor shower aren't you?"

Noah took a second to think about what she was talking about, before finally realising what she meant. There WAS a meteor shower due that night, that was the excuse he had been using to his parents for all his late nights. It was fortunate that among all the computer equipment he had set up, there was an electronic telescope. He was planning to use it in case there were any sightings reported of the fugitives near enough to the building, but it functioned well now as a reasonable explanation for why he was on the roof of a building he had no business being on at this time of night.

"Uh...yeah, that's right." Noah answered. "I heard it's going to be quite a show. I figured no one would notice if I used this rooftop."

"Probably no one would have." She assured him, bending down and picking up what Noah noticed to be another telescope. "There aren't too many astronomy geeks in this block."

"So...you're not going to call the cops?" Noah asked her. She just looked at him thoughtfully. Technically he was trespassing; he had no reason to be up here. She considered it for a moment.

"Give me a look through that rig and I'll think about it." She said as she handed him her telescope. "It looks like you have a much better set-up."

Noah took the telescope, and heard a distinctive jingle. He sighed, realising some of the lenses had to have broken. Now he felt really lousy. The least he could do is not ruin her night by denying her the chance to see the meteor shower.

"It sounds like some of the lenses are cracked." He informed her, reaching for a small case. "I think I have some spares that'll do the trick."

"Noah, that..." She started to say, but he held up a hand.

"You don't call the cops, and a turn on my set-up and a couple of lenses is a small price to pay." He assured her, taking out a small screwdriver and getting to work. She smiled.

"Thank you." She replied.

"Hey, it's my fault it's broken anyway." He reminded her. "If I wasn't here, you wouldn't have dropped it."

"But then causality isn't always that clear-cut." She stated. "If you weren't here, and I hadn't fallen here, I might have accidentally stepped on that discarded bottle and fallen off the roof to my death, so you might have saved my life."

Noah grinned as he heard her say that. There weren't that many people who were interested enough in the principles of causalities to enter into a discussion like this, certainly not many his age.

"You beat me in the science fair in sophomore year didn't you?" He asked. She giggled and nodded.

"It's the only time you've lost." She stated. Noah really felt awful about what he had to say now.

"So...I'm pretty awful with names..."

"I am too; I only remember them when I hear them connected to accomplishments...like you winning the inter-state engineering contest." She replied. "Erin."

"Pleased to meet you." He answered as he got back to work. "Tell you what, you watch out for those meteors, and I'll get on with repairing my mess."

As she turned her attention to Noah's impressive setup, figuring out how to get it to search the skies for the event to come, she couldn't help grinning.

Meanwhile, at the old plant, Bluefur burst into a chamber Vrak had set up for his experiment. It had now been two days, and he was becoming impatient.

"Vrak!" He thundered, smashing some equipment impatiently with his mace. Vrak just sighed and stood up from where he was working. "When are we going to see some results?"

"Science takes time Bluefur." He assured him.

"This science of yours has already taken two days!" Bluefur reminded him. "You assured us..."

"I assured you that if my science works, you will be able to give birth to more of your kind." Vrak said, appealing to the loneliness that fuelled the Toxic Mutants' rage. They were not creatures of nature. The humans would never accept them, their former animals kept away, not wanting anything to do with them, and not understanding how they came into being, the only members of their race were the ones that had been created by the pollution of the plant. No more were being created which meant that eventually natural selection would take its toll. Every one of them that fell was one closer to extinction. "Just think, no more isolation, not when you can easily make as many of your kind as you could ever want."

"Then why can I not see the one you have already created?" Bluefur asked him. Vrak heard a screech from another chamber and smiled.

"Now that was impeccable timing." He said as he gestured to the chamber. He turned a handle, opening a huge steel door to another lab. Inside, it was dimly lit. Bluefur looked on in awe at what he saw.

"He has to be restrained for now, the results can be unpredictable." Vrak stated. "I give you the newest Toxic Mutant...though I think Spider may be a little...well...he is your subject, I'll let you think of a name."

Bluefur stared at the creature, considering it as he stepped forward. He could sense its power, and knew that it was easily the match of any of his subjects.

"Excellent." He replied, turning back to Vrak. "Let me know when he is ready to turn loose."


	2. Vrak's Experiment

Morning rose over the old plant, and Bluefur strode through the corridors, heading for Vrak's laboratory. He had seen Vrak coming and going, collecting equipment from the Warstar flagship, and other sources. In truth, no one really knew where Vrak went. Despite his assurances to the mutants, to Bluefur in particular, he always said very little about what he was doing, or what his experiments and plans entailed. It was infuriating, and he suspected that at best Vrak simply wanted to ensure he remained useful to the mutants, by ensuring they couldn't replicate his work by themselves, at worst...he was up to something.

Coming into the lab, he found Vrak continuing to work. He barely even noticed as Bluefur entered. The massive mutant grabbed his shoulder, making him pause in what he was doing.

"I'm running out of patience Vrak!" He warned his ally.

"You don't say." Vrak replied sarcastically. "I keep telling you, these things take time. I just need to run a couple of more tests, just to make sure the changes I've made are stable. It should only be another couple of hours."

"So you will release Tarantaulus today?" He asked. Vrak just sighed and nodded.

"You're being short-sighted though, you don't realise what I'm intending." Vrak told him. "This creature...it is the perfect predator for the Rangers. It is bred for bringing them into the perfect trap. The human...he set up the humans in a plot truly worthy of a Warstar! As for the tarantula..."

"It spins its web and allows the prey to come to it." Bluefur stated in understanding. "That sounds like a lot of waiting."

"Well, really what the cr...Tarantaulus will need is time to observe its prey. Time to research and find the weaknesses in those it will hunt, and find how best to force them to face it on its terms."

"And how long is that going to take?" Bluefur roared. Vrak just shrugged.

"Well, like I said, the creature itself will be ready shortly." Vrak told him. "Of course, if you wanted to speed the process along, then perhaps giving the Rangers something to focus on will be productive."

"You provide me with a monster, then you expect me to throw one of my own while it waits?" Bluefur asked him incredulously.

"You want results, then you have to be willing to provoke them!" Vrak snapped back. "After all, if this creature is to observe the Rangers, then what better way than to draw them out so he can see them in action?"

"I will send one of my kind." Bluefur told him. "Just ensure that...thing...of yours is ready."

As Bluefur left to prepare his latest attack, Vrak just smiled.

"He will be ready." He replied, looking to the device in his hands. "I just need to ensure that my new pet is under control."

In the city, Gia was making her way towards the Brainfreeze with Noah in tow. The first couple of days had gone by with relatively few problems, but there were still a few teething issues with the newly rebuilt Brainfreeze. For one thing, it seemed like some unforeseen bugs had gotten into the new computerised register. Noah had agreed, once again, to come and help with the IT issues. Seeing him though, he was walking along in a kind of zombie-shuffle, with half-open eyes, and yawning loudly. Gia just rolled her eyes.

"Look, I know you guys have been patrolling late." She groaned. Noah just looked at her with bleary eyes.

"You don't know the half of it." He told her. "I only got about an hours' sleep before the alarm went off."

"Seriously?" Gia asked him. "I thought you guys finished up..."

"Yeah, there was a little hiccup." Noah yawned as they rounded the corner towards the cafe. "Before I could pack up my equipment, someone...found me on the roof of her apartment."

"OK, so what happened?" Gia asked, almost becoming worried. Spider's attack might have been a couple of weeks back, people were still naturally edgy. It would be odd enough finding strangers trespassing on a rooftop in the middle of the night anyway, but in the current climate, finding someone trespassing, carrying a bunch of technical equipment that she was doubtful most people would be able to identify was virtually a guaranteed trip to the police station for questioning. "Did they call the cops?"

"No, I lucked out there." He explained as they headed inside. The Brainfreeze was always open in the early morning to catch the morning coffee run for office workers, though mercifully for Gia and Cat, either Theo or Luen handled that shift since they were using Ernie's apartment until he got out of the hospital. "It turns out it was one of the girls from school, Quin."

"Quin Berkley?" Gia asked. Noah just shrugged. "Glasses, big on science, beat you last year..."

"Yeah, that's her." He concluded. "She's really into astronomy, and was heading up there to watch the meteor shower. She presumed that's what I was there for too. I said it was so that she wouldn't call the cops. So, I had to watch it with her until nearly five."

"Wow, no wonder you're tired." Gia commented as they got to the counter. Cat was coming in at the same time, hanging up her jacket. "Theo..."

"It's Luen." He corrected her.

"OK, we're seriously going to have to talk about name badges." Gia complained. "Noah's pulled an all-nighter, so double espresso on me, and...keep them coming."

"I'll get it." Cat chimed in enthusiastically, rushing to the coffee machine. Gia just shrugged and let her sort out the order, while she got ready herself.

"Thanks Cat." Noah yawned, as he went behind the counter, putting down his laptop bag and starting to look at the register. "OK, so what seems to be the problem?"

"Well, it freezes up at times and needs to be rebooted." Luen told him as he fixed what by the looks of Noah was bound to be many espressos. "Also, I'm not sure how to add new entries to the menu. There's a lot of stuff on Ernie's menu we haven't got on the system yet."

"It shouldn't take me too long to figure out." Noah assured him as he started to get to work. Just then, Troy and Emma arrived. Noah saw them coming, and tried to ignore them, concentrating on the task at hand. Emma had her arm around Troy's waist as they arrived.

"Hey, how's it going?" Gia asked as she saw them. "So, what is it today, another nature hike?"

"Not quite." Troy answered. "We decided after so much fresh air and exercise, we deserved a little quiet time, so we thought we'd stop in for some waffles here, and then we're off to the bowling alley."

"There's a fund-raiser there for victims of the chemical plant attack." Emma explained. "Jake and Jordan are going to be there too, we thought it'd be fun."

"Unfortunately I have to work today." Gia moaned. "That would have been so much fun!"

"You only want to go because you know you'd wipe the floor with us." Emma giggled.

"Say Noah, how did patrolling go last night?" Troy asked, once Luen stepped into the back. Noah just got up and looked to Troy.

"It's slow going, but we've nearly got them all." He assured Troy. "You can get the details from Jake and Jordan at the alley."

"Come on Noah, don't you want to join us?" Emma asked him with a bright smile.

"Sorry Emma, this'll take me a while." He told her.

"I thought you said it wouldn't take long." Cat stated as she returned with Noah's first espresso. Noah just took the cup.

"It's a bit more difficult than I thought." He told her, before looking back to Emma. "Once I'm done here, I'll need to rest up before carrying on with that other project I have. I'll not be available all day."

"Well, maybe another time." Troy suggested. "One extra large order of waffles, strawberries and cream when you get a chance Cat."

"To go." Emma added. "We want to get to the alley a little early. I've never really bowled before, so I was hoping to get in a little practice first."

"Kay kay." She answered as she headed off to begin the order. Emma and Troy took a seat a little way off as Gia went to Noah's side.

"OK, so what's the real deal?" Gia asked her. "I know you, we asked you to do this because we know you're a whizz with stuff like this. You'll probably have this sorted in a minute flat."

"Like I said, I only got a couple of hours' sleep." Noah reiterated. "If I'm going to be out all night again tonight, I think it might be a better idea to just go home don't you?"

Gia just accepted the explanation, going back to setting up for the day as Theo came in from the bank with the change order. Just then, there was a bleeping coming from four different parts of the restaurant. Theo looked around as he saw Troy and Emma huddle together, covering something, while Gia looked in her bag at something. As Cat got back with their order, Troy ran over, handing her ten bucks and snatched the bag.

"Thanks Cat." He called out as he and Emma ran off. Noah got up, beginning to put his stuff away.

"Here you go Luen, that should work now." He told him. "I'll be back to add that stuff to the system in a little while, I just...need to pick up another piece of hardware."

Downing his espresso so quickly, he clearly burned himself, he ran out as well. Gia was a little edgier, since she was meant to be on shift. She knew her duty was more important; she just...needed a decent excuse to leave. She eventually got an idea.

"We're out of mint syrup." She called out, grabbing her jacket.

"Hey, where are you going?" Cat called after her.

"I'll get some from the store!" Gia yelled back. "I'll be back for the lunch rush!"

Theo and Luen just looked at each other, and Theo got a knowing smile on his face.

"I'm sorry, she doesn't normally..."

"It's OK, really." Theo interrupted Cat. "We need mint syrup. We can manage without her for a couple of minutes."

Cat seemed a little happier by the fact that Gia didn't appear to be in any trouble with the boss. They had only been working there a few days, and it was a favour to Ernie. The last thing she wanted was for them to think Gia didn't care.

She went into the back, at which Luen came over to Theo.

"I bet that's familiar." He stated. Theo just nodded.

"Now I know how RJ and Fran must have felt." He stated. "Still, I guess we can't really stand in the way."

"Just...make sure that morpher stays in your pocket." Luen warned him. "We could do without losing another member of staff."

Theo just took off his jacket and headed into the back to get ready.

In another part of town, the Rangers arrived, assembling on the edge of the nearby river. They all had their weapons at the ready, and looked around for signs of the disturbance.

"Are we sure this is the place?" Jake asked.

"The energy signatures don't lie, the mutant attacked here." Noah replied.

"Fan out, he has to be here somewhere." Troy stated.

"Thank you captain obvious." Noah muttered under his breath bitterly. He'd already said the exact same thing; he didn't need Captain Marvellous to say the same thing.

Just then, they heard a scream and a crash. Looking out, they saw the splintered remains of a boat in the river, and some people thrashing about wildly, as other ships made their way to rescue them. Noah strained his eyes to see, noticing a long, dark shape just under the surface of the water, surging in their direction.

"There!" He called out, firing a few blasts. His Shark Bowgun could fire through water with minimal deviation to the shot, but that didn't stop the distortion of light making it hard to pinpoint the creature's exact position. Eventually, it burst out of the water, soaring into the air, and landing on the banks, drenching the area.

It was reptilian, and looked to be almost fifteen feet from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail. It had slits for nostrils, and rows of razor sharp fangs. Its body was covered in huge, slick scales that were dark green. It let out a huge roar.

"OK, now that is one huge gator..."

"It's a lizard." Emma interrupted Jake. He just looked at her.

"Seriously, can't you let just one go?" He asked her. Being the nature expert, Emma had a virtually encyclopaedic knowledge of what to look for to identify a number of species.

"Who cares?" Jordan stated, bringing out his Robo Blade. "In about five minutes, it's going to be a couple of pairs of boots, and a hell of a lot of handbags."

He ran forward, but the creature moved with alarming speed, and smashed him with its tail, sending Jordan spinning into the river. Jake and Gia were next to the attack, taking it from two directions at once to keep it off balance.

Noah fired his bowgun, only to find its blasts to be more of an annoyance to the creature than anything else. It seemed to shrug off most of it without any effect whatsoever. It grabbed Jake in one hand, and Gia in the other, throwing the Black Ranger into Noah, sending him scattering. Seeing Emma, clearly it recognised that she too had a ranged weapon, and took her down by throwing Gia into her before she could respond.

"Emma!" Troy called out, sprinting to her defence. He ran towards the creature, which opened its mouth and belched forth a huge, green toxic fog. Troy had to hold his breath, and he could feel it burning, even through his suit. His eyes started to water, making it even harder to see, but he had already trained for this eventuality. As he slammed into the creature, he drove the Dragon Sword deep into its abdomen.

The mutant screamed and started to stagger. Adjusting his grip, Troy jumped upwards, bringing the sword upward through the creature, carving a destructive path, before powering up his Dragon Sword on the way down. Striking its head from its shoulders, the creature pitched forward and landed on the ground. He was just coming back to his senses as the others came to and came to his side. The one thing he wasn't sure he would ever get used to was that the mutants didn't explode and disappear. Being creatures with, at least in the baseline, a terrestrial DNA, they didn't do that. They actually left...remains.

"Alright, you took him down." Jordan stated, looking around as he got his Robo Morhper at the ready. "So...anyone noticing something missing?"

They waited for a while longer, and longer...after almost a minute, there was no sign of any zombats. It was like Vrak had stopped caring about the battle. Normally he'd make one of the creatures grow, even if it was just to further inconvenience the Rangers, but this time...it just didn't seem to come. Eventually, Troy just sighed.

"It looks like it's over." He replied. Seeing that the citizens had already deserted the area, he indicated that it was safe to de-morph. Troy went to Emma's side, holding her.

"Is everyone OK?" He asked, directing his attention mainly towards her. Emma just nodded.

"We're all fine." Jake assured him. "That guy hit hard, but we've faced worse."

"Yeah, it's weird, why would Vrak sends something like that?" Noah asked. "I mean, it was hardly that dangerous...he didn't even bother re-growing it."

"Well, whatever he was planning, I have to go." Gia told them. "I have to get some mint syrup and get back before the lunch rush."

"I promised to finish that system upgrade." Noah stated, going with her. Jake, Jordan, Emma and Troy just looked at each other.

"Well, if we start walking now, we should get to the bowling alley before the tournament starts." Troy stated.

As they left, in a dark shade between two buildings, Tarantaulus was watching. The whole attack had been purely a distraction. It had been designed to draw out the Rangers so that he could see them in action, but in the process, he had seen so much more.

It was taking time getting used to the distorted, fractured image provided by his new multiple eyes, but it hadn't been too long since his days walking among them. He could remember the faces of the people he had seen. He now knew who the Rangers were. With a clicking sound in its throat, the new mutant climbed the building, choosing the first of its quarry. It knew its prey, now it was time to start spinning the web.


	3. The First Thread

Eric made his way to the office, finding the way barred once again by reporters. There were considerably less than there were in the previous weeks, but the Spider thing was still pretty big news. While Eric was still hopeful that if everyone just kept quiet and didn't give the press anything to work with, in time it would blow over, his escape had only prolonged things. Since he was still at large, there was always the possibility of a revenge attack or renewal of his campaign had only stoked the fire. Now the same questions were being asked again. How could he have gotten so close to the chemical plant? Were Cerberus able to be trusted with such vital security work? Was Eric able to keep his mind on the job?

He ignored the reporters as he made his way into the underground garage, and parked up his car, locking up before starting to make his way to the elevator. As he did so, he saw Wayne waiting for him.

"Wayne?" He asked. "I wasn't expecting you back so soon."

"What else was I going to do?" He asked. "I've had reporters camped outside my house for the last week. Jaimee's barely left the house."

"Poor kid, how's she doing?" Eric asked him. Wayne just sighed. Jaimee was his fifteen year old daughter. Spider, or "Mikey" as was his name in the house and on his birth certificate, was her older brother. It wasn't exactly like he could stop her watching the local news or catching glimpses of headlines that told her what her brother had done. The reporters, when they couldn't get any juicy tidbits from Wayne for their dirt sheets had even tried to ask her for information. Just like Emma though, Wayne had taught his kids from a young age what the press were like. She knew not to talk to them, no matter how much they tried to provoke a reaction.

"She's doing as well as can be expected." Wayne told him, accompanying him to the elevator. "I've sent her to her aunt's in the country for a couple of weeks. Maybe by the time she comes back the reporters will have something else to talk about."

"We can only hope." Eric grumbled. "Louise just got canned from her last job because they wouldn't leave her alone to work."

"People still think you...?"

"Everyone loves a good sex scandal." Eric sighed as they arrived up on the top floor, stepping out into the corridor. He walked past the secretary, picking up his mail and the newspaper. He didn't need to check the mail; he knew that would have been done already, so only the mail he wanted to receive would get through. He just took a seat at his desk with Wayne, while the secretary went to get some coffee. "I just wish it didn't cost her so much. She's been through a lot already, she doesn't deserve all this."

"She'll get something else." Wayne assured him with a smile, checking the paper as Wayne started to check through the mail. "Hey, here's something..."

"Yeah, I know all about prop-8 and DOMA." Eric interrupted him. "It's pretty huge news, I know a few people that'll be happy about that."

"Actually I was meaning Wimbledon." Wayne answered, showing him the sports' page. "In the first two rounds, Tsonga, Federer and Nadal have all gone out."

"Tennis?" Eric asked quizzically. "Really?"

"Hey, I've got five hundred bucks riding on Murray." Wayne said with a shrug, putting down the paper. He was just trying to get the subject onto something a little more pleasant. Still, he was serious about the tennis. It was a pretty serious bet.

Just then, the phone rang. Eric just looked to Wayne, who held up his hands and left the room. He took his coffee from the secretary, who was just bringing it in, and they both left, leaving Eric alone to answer his phone. Meanwhile, outside the window, across the street, Tarantaulus was watching. He could remember the men he had seen, one in particular caused him to lose focus for a moment, almost forgetting his mission. A jolt from a device implanted within the back of his head sent a current through him, and affected his mind, bringing his focus back onto the task at hand. He wasn't here for himself; he was here to gather information, and to figure out his web. He marked the area for future reference, before scurrying away into the shadows.

Back at the Brainfreeze, Noah and Gia arrived, Gia carrying a bottle of mint syrup. Cat smiled brightly as she saw them, waving them over.

"Gia, you're back!" She called out. Gia just came over, looking at her a little curiously.

"I said I was only going out for syrup." Gia reminded her.

"Well, after you left, I found a couple of bottles under the counter." Cat stated, sliding back a door panel. Gia had to think quickly.

"Oh...um..." She stammered. "Well, that's embarrassing."

"I guess you can't be perfect at everything." Cat commented, wrapping her arms around Gia's neck. Noah just rolled his eyes as he made his way behind the counter.

"Can you guys keep your hands off each other for a couple of minutes?" He asked. "I need one of you to go through the menu with me. Maybe if I update the system soon, I might actually get some sleep today."

"Boy, someone's grumpy when he doesn't sleep well." Cat said sweetly as she came over, bringing a menu with her.

As she helped Noah with the update, Gia started to work on some more coffee for Noah, completely oblivious to Tarantaulus keeping an eye on them from a hiding spot nearby. He watched on, seeing the people he was tailing. Knowing who the Rangers were was only part of the battle, the other was finding how best to use that knowledge. His quarry were strong, and he needed to find how best to make them weak, to make them defeat themselves. Marking this location so he could find it again, he left in search of his other targets.

At the Bowling Alley, Jake and Jordan were in one lane, while Emma and Troy were in another. The charity tournament was well underway. None of them were taking it especially seriously, Emma especially who, by virtue of never having bowled before was spending most of her time throwing balls into the gutter, contenting herself more with the laughter and spending time with Troy.

Jordan threw yet another ball down the lane, sending pins scattering in all directions, creating another 7-10 split. Jake face palmed as Jordan swore loudly, returning to the table to his portion of onion rings.

"Dude, what is with you lately?" He asked. Jordan just shrugged.

"I guess I'm just thinking about the guys we've been chasing." Jordan replied.

"You mean the ones you haven't sent to the infirmary?" Jake asked sarcastically. Jordan just groaned and grabbed up the ball, looking at him.

"Seriously, what is your deal?" Jake asked him. "They're kids!"

"You do know why most of them are in there right?" Jordan asked in response. "They don't send kids to Juvie for littering or shop lifting you know. Most of those kids are evil!"

"Wow, that's just not judgemental at all." Jake responded sarcastically.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but those kids have already made their choices in life!" Jordan snapped at him. "They chose to hurt people; some of them have even killed. Forgive me if I don't exactly feel too sorry for them when they run across someone they can't actually push around."

"Dude, we're only meant to stop them. It's not our place to be judge and jury." Jake answered. "We can stop them hurting others..."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Jordan stated, putting an arm across Jake's chest. He gestured in front of them. Jake looked forward, seeing what he was looking at. Two of the three remaining fugitives were out there, as bold as brass, dipping pockets. He looked to Jake, at which the two of them broke into a run. Jake was a little way behind Jordan as he tackled the first of the two of them to the ground, causing an old lady to shriek as she saw this and call for security. He mounted the unfortunate fugitive and held him in a painful arm-lock as the guards came running. A little way off, Jake was chasing the other, but the chase was cut off as Troy intercepted him, throwing him to the ground.

"Alright son, what gives?" The security guard asked. Jordan just looked up, before getting up, letting him see the kid on the ground.

"I think you'll find the cops are looking for this guy." Jordan told him, before grabbing a purse and throwing it to the old lady. "I think you'll find this is yours."

"He...he...thank you young man!" She stammered, beginning to look through her purse for a reward. Jordan just held up a hand, politely refusing.

"That won't be necessary." He assured her. "Just try to be a little more careful in public in future. People like this...thing, won't always be so gentle."

Jake came across, dragging the other guy with him, twisting his arm painfully up his back while Troy and Emma backed him up. He handed him to another guard.

"There's another one for you." Jake told them. The guards both looked to the Rangers as a couple of cops arrived and they cuffed the kids.

"Well, we appreciate the help, but these fugitives could have been very dangerous." One of the cops warned them. "In future, try and leave such things to the professionals."

"Just as long as you put these scumbags where they belong." Jordan shot back. Jake just glared at him as the cops took them away. Jordan noticed the look. "Alright, what now?"

"You really shouldn't judge." Jake told him. "You don't know anything about those kids."

"I know what they did." He replied. "What else do I need to know?"

"I'm not going to say that whatever they did is right, but you can't know what made a person act how they did until you understand what they've been through." Emma told him. "Some people don't exactly choose..."

"Oh cry me a river, everyone has a sob story." Jordan said sharply. "Everyone has problems, but some of us don't just take the easy way out. Some of us actually work at solving our problems the right way. Now, are we going to play or what?"

Jake just shook his head and picked up a ball, before following Jordan back to their lane. Despite his reservations about Jordan and his methods, there was at least one thing they could be thankful for. Now, they only had one fugitive unaccounted for. Only Spider was still out there.

As they headed back for their lane, Troy noticed Emma was a little quiet, and put his arm around her. It was a thought that had occurred to them too. Spider was the only one still at large. He just held her closely.

"Come on, why don't we go back to the game?" He asked. Emma just looked at the score board, before looking back to him.

"Something tells me it won't be long before I'm hitting the cut." She told him. "I may not know much about bowling, but I know having a single-figure score by the ninth frame has to be considered pretty lame."

Troy just picked up his final ball, and rolled it straight into the gutter, before wrapping his arms around her, smiling.

"Well, I guess I missed the cut too." Troy said with a shrug. "We've already paid our entry fee. What do you say we head out and see a movie or something?"

"That sounds ideal." Emma replied, doing the same with her ball. With that, they walked out of the bowling alley arm-in-arm.

A little after lunch time, over at the Brainfreeze, things were finally starting to die down a little. During the summer, they got a lot of business, but it tended to go very much in spikes during the day if the weather was good. The kids would stop off for drinks and ice-cream, then head out again to take advantage of the Californian summer. Theo came into the room, finding Cat and Gia working hard, clearing up after the last rush.

"Did Noah finish up with the system?" Theo asked them. Gia just nodded.

"He went home a little while ago." Gia told him. Theo quickly checked the new system, just to satisfy himself that everything was as he wanted it, and nodded, looking impressed.

"Well, I'll make sure I stop by his place later." Theo stated, looking impressed. "I don't know what it would have cost us for an IT guy to do that."

"I can do it now." Cat told him. Theo just looked to her. Gia just shrugged her shoulders.

"We have been pretty busy." Gia suggested. "Besides, I had a break earlier when I went for that syrup."

"You know where he lives right?" Theo asked, taking some cash from the register and putting it into an envelope. Cat just nodded.

"It's just past the pet store." Cat answered as she gathered her jacket. "They always have those really adorable rabbits in the window."

"Alright, well here you go." Theo said, handing her the envelope. Cat then went to Gia and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

"I'll be back soon OK?" She asked. Gia just smiled and nodded. Although she was there to help out Ernie while he recovered, she had to admit that having Cat there made the whole thing about food service a lot more tolerable. Between demanding customers, rude customers who seemed to mistake servers as being animals to abuse and bark at, she had already found her short time in the service industry to be seriously wearing away at her faith in humanity.

Her gaze snatched up as she heard a scream from outside. Recognising it as Cat, she grabbed her morpher from her bag, and vaulted the counter in one swift move, running out of the Brianfreeze, finding her sprawled on the ground. Towering over her was a hideous creature.

It had a vaguely humanoid body, with black and red fur all over it. Four long, spindly tentacle-like legs sprouted from its back, and supported its body above the ground. A large growth came from the back of it, ending in a kind of nozzle at the end.

"Leave her alone!" Gia called out as she saw it. The creature swung around, showing her its face. Its head was about twice the size of a watermelon, and sort of oval in shape. It had eight gleaming red eyes dispersed around its head, and above a humanoid mouth, a massive pair of mandibles that dripped a clear fluid. She started to back up as the rest of the crowd ran away.

She reached for her morpher, preparing to slam her power card into it, but before she could, Tarantaulus brought its spinner to bear underneath its body, firing gloop at her. Gia found her morpher completely encased in tight, strong, unyielding webbing, stopping her from getting her card into it, and sealing the device to her hand. Gia had to duck as she saw a couple of spider legs coming her way, smashing through a window behind her.

She rolled behind a dumpster, before taking another look at her predicament. The web was now completely set. She couldn't even get her fingers inside to give it a decent tug to try and break the threats. All she managed to do was painfully break some nails against the strong threads, which showed no sign of moving. Her morpher was now completely sealed off from her. She couldn't activate the communicator in it, she couldn't put her power card in it, and worst of all, it was sealed to her right hand, meaning that she now had only one hand to fight with. She picked up a bottle, and broke cover, throwing it at Tarantaulus, but the creature just swatted it away.

Gia could only watch in horror as the creature sank its mandibles into Cat, causing her to scream out in agony. Within seconds, her body fell limp, but her eyes were open, and kept moving, indicating that she was still alive. Gia rushed towards Tarantaulus, attacking him as furiously as she could. She found herself grabbed, and slammed hard into the ground a couple of times, completely stunning her. After the third time, she knew she was incapable of fighting.

The creature drew Gia in close, staring straight into her eyes, and smiled.

"Too easy." He responded. "Besides, I have another five to worry about. Tell them about me. Welcome to the hunt."

With that, he tossed her aside. She could only watch as he started to wrap Cat up, completely mummifying her, other than her head in his webbing, before collecting her, holding her with his human limbs while he scurried off, climbing up the building. Gia started to slide into unconsciousness as she saw a pair of blue leggings, and short blue boots running up to her.

"Gia?" She heard a voice asking. "Gia, hang on..."


	4. Tarantaulus' Web

Gia's head was pounding as she slowly started to come around. Every inch of her body ached, and it only got worse as she tried to move. She had taken a massive beating at the hands of the latest Toxic Mutant. She had tried as best she could, but he had stopped her morphing right off the bat, meaning that she was on her own, and only had her own abilities to save her. She knew she didn't stand a chance, the only reason she even stayed was because...

Remembering seeing Cat lying helpless on the floor, she sat bolt upright. It was something she regretted, as her head started spinning, and she almost vomited pretty much instantly. She felt hands on her, trying to keep her down.

"Take it easy, you took some pretty harsh punishment." She heard someone beside her telling her. She felt him take her hand and press a cup into it. "Here, drink this, its herbal tea, it'll help."

Gia just did as she was told. It took a moment before she looked around, seeing the others around her. Theo was next to her, tending to her.

"Um...we were..."

"I know about that spider thing." Theo interrupted her, before she bothered to try and tax her brain for a lie. "I got there just as it ran off with Cat. I'm sorry; I was too late to stop him."

"Cat." Gia said, trying again to move. She just found herself being held down. Troy just turned to Theo.

"We appreciate the effort." Troy stated, sounding almost grateful Theo hadn't gotten there in time. After all, if the creature had taken down Gia, then what good did Theo really think he would accomplish? "Could you give us a minute? We'll get her out of here to a hospital soon."

"I'm here if you need anything." He assured them, taking Luen and heading into the back. He knew that for now, the team probably had stuff to discuss that they wouldn't be willing to discuss in front of him. He had been a fraction too slow to stop Tarantaulus from leaving with Cat, but he was ready in case they needed his help. He knew more than a little something about predators.

As he left, Gia tried to get up, but the others just held her back down.

"Gia, would you quit moving?" Noah asked her from a spot just to her right. "This isn't exactly easy."

She looked down, and saw him working with cutting tools by her right hand. It was starting to come back to her now, the reason she had been beaten so decisively was because he had taken her morpher out of the equation. It was bound to her right hand, and completely encased in tight webbing, that stopped her getting access to it. By the looks of the couple of blunted and damaged tools lying next to him, it looked like Noah had already been trying for some time to get her hand, and her morpher free. In return, the webbing seemed to be barely affected, maybe some minor fraying, but that was all. Needless to say, one of the deciding factors in exactly how much he could do was the fact that with her hand in there, he had to be careful so that she didn't end up losing fingers, or even the hand.

"Theo told us about what happened." Troy told her as Emma held her best friend. Noah just got frustrated as he tossed aside his latest blade.

"Damn it!" He snapped. "What the hell is this stuff?"

"It looks like spider silk." Emma told him. "Web. Pound for pound, most spider silk is stronger than steel. When this thing mutated, it looks like its webbing mutated too."

"Well, that still doesn't answer the question how we get this stuff the hell off." Gia complained. "What about Cat?"

"There's no sign of her, or the creature." Jake told her sympathetically. "I'm really sorry, but..."

"We need to find her, we need to..."

"You need to calm down a little while we figure this out." Troy stated, keeping her attention focused on him. Noah just went back to what he was doing, hoping that his next tool managed to make some form of dent in the webbing. Gia just sighed and sat back letting them work. "We need to make a stop at the command centre. Noah, give it a rest. Maybe Tensou has something in his lab that will help with that. We need to bring Gosei up to speed."

"Well this isn't getting us anywhere." Noah sighed, putting his tools away. "Maybe we should move this somewhere more comfortable."

"I can't..." Gia started to say, before holding up her hand. "I can't reach the teleport command."

"Stay close." Emma told her, holding onto Gia, as much to comfort her over Cat's disappearance as to bring her with her when she teleported. In a flash of light, they disappeared.

Elsewhere, Tarantaulus arrived in the structure he had chosen as the ideal site for his trap. He descended into the centre of the structure, carrying his captive with him.

Even without the venom coursing through her, keeping her paralysed, Cat was completely, helplessly bound in his webbing. He carried her over towards a pillar, holding her up against it.

"Well, what do you think?" He asked her.

"It's kind of creepy." Cat answered honestly, looking around at the damp, musty, dark place. "Can I go home?"

"What do you think?" He asked her. "You're far too important where you are right now."

"Valuable?" Cat asked him. Tarantaulus just smiled, clicking his mandibles in excitement.

"What better to bring the Rangers into a web than some live bait?" He asked her as he spun more web, binding her completely to the pillar. "Don't worry though, you won't be on your own for long. You're just one thread in the web."

"Wait, what web?" Cat called after him as he walked away. "Why would you think they'd come for me? Wait...come back!"

Over at the Command Centre, Gia was in Tensou's lab, her hand and morpher stuck in a device that was analysing the threat that bound her hand to the device. Noah was blinking uncontrollably as he looked at the screen. Seeing him yawn, Tensou turned to him.

"You need to rest." Tensou told him.

"I can't rest, the others need me." Noah told him. "If Gia's out of action, then we'll need everyone we can get."

"Hey, I'm sitting right here." Gia reminded them. Noah just yawned and nodded.

"We'll hopefully know something soon." He assured her. "If there's some way to get this off your hand, we'll find it."

"Noah, you can't work at full capacity if you're falling asleep." Tensou reminded him. "The scan will take a while, why don't you relax for a little while? I'll wake you if something comes up."

"I don't want to sleep." Noah told him. "I want to..."

"Noah, Tensou's right, you need to rest up." Gia told him. "I don't know what these scans will turn up, but if you do have to start working on this again, I'd like you to be ready and well rested." She commented. "I'm kind of attached to my hand, and I'd like it to stay that way."

Tensou called out a bench, and indicated towards it. Noah just sighed and conceded that they had a point. He just went over, and lay down. It wasn't long before they heard him snoring.

In the main room, Jordan, Jake, Troy and Emma were gathered. Troy was pacing, trying to fathom what was going on.

"Alright, what do we know so far?" He asked.

"Well, this latest mutant's some kind of spider." Jake commented. "The webs are kind of a giveaway."

"I think it's fair to say that he probably wanted Cat as bait." Troy added. "From what little I know of spiders, they supposedly bait their web to encourage others to come into the trap."

"So, now all we need to figure out is where the trap is." Jake surmised. "We just trace his energy signature..."

"It's not that simple, his energy signature is masked somehow." Gosei interrupted as they all discussed their options. Jordan just groaned in frustration.

"So we what, just sit around and wait until he strikes again?" He asked. "Why aren't we out there looking for him?"

"If he is using Cat as bait, then he needs her alive." Jake reminded him. "So for now, she's probably safe. If we just go charging in without a plan..."

"Tell you what, why don't you all think of a plan?" Jordan asked as he gathered up his Robo Morpher. "Call me when we're ready to actually do something. In the meantime, I'm going to go looking for Spider. Maybe you all forgot about him?"

Before they could stop him, he stormed out of the Command Centre. Jake just held up a hand as Emma and Troy looked to him.

"Your guess is as good as mine." He grumbled. "He's been going on about those juvie fugitives since they broke out. It's not like he was contributing anything useful to the conversation."

"Fine, we'll call him if we need him." Troy replied. "Alright, so back to the task at hand."

Meanwhile, Eric's day had finished up, and he was going with Wayne to get something to eat. Lately, Emma had a habit of coming back later now that she was with Troy, and Gia was on shift at the Brainfreeze, meaning it was likely going to be just him for dinner. Wayne was in the same situation, with his daughter spending some time out of town at an aunt's place while the press interest in his son died down.

He headed into KFC with Wayne, taking a stall near the door. He wasn't especially used to eating places like that, but it was better than taking the risk of trying to cook. As he was eating, he noticed something a little way off. Louise was in the line, waiting for her turn in the queue. Wayne saw the way he was looking over and snapped his fingers.

"Hey, we're trying to end rumours remember?" He asked him.

"People talk, you know that." Eric replied. "She's had a rough time of things, we should invite her over."

"Are you seriously trying to play with fire?" Wayne asked him. "Look, the papers are starting to lighten up on this whole affair thing. They're finally convinced you never..."

His words tailed off as Eric just looked to him. Wayne just sighed and shook his head.

"You didn't." He groaned. Eric just looked to him.

"Never is a long time Wayne." He replied. "Nothing happened that night, but we have been friends a long time. I'd be lying if I said I was never attracted to her."

"Wasn't Eleanor her best friend?" Wayne asked him. Eric just shot him a warning glare.

"Nothing EVER happened while I was with Eleanor." He told him flatly. "Eleanor always was the first woman I ever loved."

"So...if nothing happened then, and nothing happened at the motel..."

"I'm sorry I said anything now." Eric grumbled. "You really are infuriating."

Just then, the entire front window came raining in. Tarantaulus came scurrying into the restaurant, launching diners in all directions. He saw Louise sprawled before him on the ground and started to approach.

"Ah, Mrs Moran, just who I was looking for." He taunted her as he approached. She screamed as she tried to crawl away, but he fired some webbing, pinning her legs together. "And if you're here..."

He ducked as a shot was fired just a little way over his head. Wayne and Eric were training their guns on him. Eric made his way over to Louise, standing over her.

"Ah, what a surprise, you're here." Tarantaulus stated, looking to Eric.

"Who doesn't love a piece of Colonel's original recipe every now and then?" He asked. "Now, the Rangers aren't here yet, but if you leave now..."

"I don't think so." He replied, firing more webbing. By now, Eric and Louise were completely helplessly bound. Wayne fired a couple of rounds, which tore into him painfully. Tarantaulus smashed him aside with some of his legs, before ramming one through his shoulder, pinning him to the floor. He drew close, but as he saw Wayne lying on the floor, screaming in agony, he paused. It triggered something in his memory seeing his father on the ground, gravely injured by his hand.

"Alright, that's enough, let them go!" Jake yelled as he came into the room, swinging his Snake axe. He sliced off a section of the leg that had impaled Wayne. The creature screamed in pain, but as Jake rushed him from behind, he was peppered by some barbed darts, which left him writhing on the floor in agony. Tarantaulus gathered up Eric and Louise, before leaping outside. He saw Troy and Emma waiting for him, and held them before him for cover.

"Troy, we can't!" Emma called out, holding him back. Tarantaulus took advantage of the confusion, and threw Troy across the street, out of harms' way.

Emma turned back to the creature, but couldn't bring herself to attack. Remembering what he had seen, Tarantaulus smiled as he realised a rare opportunity. He fired more webbing, binding Emma's hands together, and pulled her in, before grabbing the three hostages.

"Welcome to my web." He greeted her, before scurrying off with the three of them. By the time Troy and Jake recovered enough to realise what was going on, he was long gone, and had three more captives for his efforts.


	5. The Web Tightens

Back at the Command Centre, Jordan, Jake and Troy arrived, still arguing loudly about the disastrous battle. They had managed not only to lose Louise and Eric to the creature, but by the time they had recovered, Emma was gone. Noah was roused from his slumber and ran out as he heard the commotion. Jake was scratching and grunting in discomfort as he yelled at the other two Rangers.

"What happened?" Noah asked, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"Tarantaulus came back." Troy informed him. "He went after Eric and Louise. He's taken them too."

"Wait, what?" Gia asked, snapping off the bench she was lying on. "He's...he's got mom?"

"I'm afraid so." Jake told her sympathetically. "We're really sorry..."

"It looks like we can safely conclude that he is after our loved ones." Troy put down flatly. "We still can't track him."

"Where's Emma?" Noah asked. Just then, Troy looked even more distraught. This was a nightmare for him. Up until now, he had managed to keep a lot of his enemies' focus on him, and he had managed to limit the collateral damage caused by the war. So far, this was his biggest failure. In just two encounters, Tarantaulus had managed to take three of their loved ones, and take two of their Rangers out of the equation. Worse, the girl he loved was now in his clutches, and yet in return, they still didn't know anything about him.

"He...he took her too." Troy told her. Jake held Gia as she heard this news. Tarantaulus now had the three people that meant the most to her in the world in his web. She was helpless to do anything to aid them. "We'll get her back, we just need..."

"You know what, that is IT!" Noah snapped as he got into Troy's face. "He managed to take Emma, and two other hostages, and you didn't do a thing to stop him?"

"Noah, it's not like we didn't try." Jake interjected, pulling off his shirt to show that his flesh was incredibly red, and looked like it had to be incredibly painful. "He peppered me with something...I was barely able to move!"

"Noah, you need to calm down..."

"You know what? I am SICK of doing what you tell us to do!" Noah snapped at him.

"Noah..."

"Seriously, you've managed to let this guy take four hostages, one of which is your own girlfriend, and you didn't do anything to stop him?" Noah demanded.

"Noah, that's enough!" Jake warned him. He knew the real reason Noah was so upset. He was blaming Troy for everything that had happened. He blamed him for the fact that so far anything they had tried hadn't worked. He was blaming him for the fact that Emma, the girl he was devoted to, was now in mortal danger, and worst of all, Troy hadn't even made any real progress on finding out where he was keeping his captives.

"No, this has to be said. What's the master plan Troy, wait until this guy's finally fed up just taking stuff from us?" Noah demanded.

"Noah, that's not fair!" Troy protested. Noah just shook his head and turned away, activating the teleport command on his morpher. "Noah, where are you going?"

"To actually do something!" He replied as he disappeared.

Tarantaulus returned to his lair after the battle, dragging his new captives with him. It was a very bumpy ride, since he was taking little care to ensure his captives were comfortable.

As he arrived on the roof of a massive building, Emma looked down and saw the massive expanse of space beneath them. It was gigantic, and by the looks of things, Tarantaulus had been hard at work, criss-crossing strands of webbing the entire length and breadth of the building inside. As he pitched over the edge, slowing his descent with a web, she got a better look around. It was a roughly oval building, with terraced seating all around. She saw grass underneath, which was marked with gridlines. It was a football stadium, one that looked like it had been abandoned for some time. The local football team had gone into administration a couple of years ago, and because of a downturn in the building trade, the city council hadn't gotten around to demolishing it and clearing the site yet. As he landed, he allowed his three captives to fall to the ground.

"Don't go anywhere." He taunted Emma as he webbed her feet together. He dragged Eric and Louise away, and began to spin a couple of webs, stringing both of them up in the intricate pattern he had created. Emma could only look around helplessly, seeing him doing this. She tried to get out, but the webbing was simply too strong. As she looked around, she saw Cat a little way off, stuck to a pillar by more webbing. She was relieved to see that for now at least, she was still alive. As he finished stringing up his other captives, he returned to Emma.

"As for you, I've got something very special in mind for you." He told her, lifting her into his arms. He carried her down a passageway, and down into a basement. He turned on the lights, showing her an underground gym. It was the training facility for the old team. He leapt with Emma into the now-empty swimming pool.

"You're making a huge mistake mutant." She warned him. "The others..."

"The others will stall and hesitate just as you did." He told her. "Why do you think I've chosen the victims I have? Do you think it's a coincidence that I've taken your dad? Or Mrs Moran, or Cat?"

Emma was about to reply, but stopped when she realised something. She had referred to Eric as her dad. He hadn't called him Mr Goodall, or Eric...he had referred to him as her dad.

"Well, it looks like you've gotten a little quicker." He continued, webbing her hands spread-eagled to the side of the pool in the deep end. He then webbed both her feet to the floor. He reached up to her helmet, activating the latches. "It's just a shame that you never were quick enough Emma."

Her hair spilled around her as he removed the helmet, exposing her face. She was at least a little grateful that none of the hostages were down here, meaning that none of them saw her identity.

"You...you know me?" She asked him. Tarantaulus just started laughing.

"Wow, I can't believe I even pretended to be into you." He responded. "Maybe if I mash myself over the head with a rock for a while I'll lose enough IQ points for you to keep up."

"Spider?" Emma gasped, realising what he meant. He grabbed her face.

"Wow, you finally got there." He responded.

"But...what happened to you?" She asked him.

"The same thing that's going to happen to the whole city in time I imagine." He replied as he started to head to the back of the pool, hopping out at the end. "Vrak made a few...improvements."

"Vrak's able to make more mutants?" Emma asked him.

"Now, there's no need for you to go getting ahead of yourself." He told her. "First of all, I get to make you all pay for what happened. I get to bring you all to your knees. All I need to do is find suitable bait for that Jordan kid and your brainless buddy Jake, and your friends won't just walk into my web...they'll run willingly without even realising it."

"Wait, Jake and Jordan?" Emma asked him. She was already reeling from everything she had heard. His plan made sense; she had hesitated because her dad was in the firing line. Gia, presuming they found a way to release her from her morpher, would be scared of her mother or Cat getting caught up in the battle. Now, Troy was most likely going out of his mind because she was missing. He was now looking for someone to bait the trap for Jake and Jordan... "What about Noah?"

"OK, if you're really going to be that dumb, maybe you just shouldn't talk." Tarantaulus mocked her, firing off some webbing, covering the lower half of her face, sealing her mouth shut and gagging her effectively. He approached a valve on some pipes. "It's so tragic, you almost don't deserve to hear it, but seriously, why do you think Noah spent so much time snooping around me trying to find something to tell you to get you away from me? Why do you think he was so desperate to play the hero? Why do you think he keeps hanging around you like a pathetic little puppy?"

Emma was unable to answer because of the gag. He turned the valve a little way, beginning the outlet filling the pool in a slow trickle.

"Well, let's see which lover-boy gets the job done." He told her as he left the room. Emma struggled against her bonds, but to no avail. She was completely and effectively trapped, and there was nothing she could do to free herself. She looked over to where her helmet lay on the bottom of the pool, realising that without it, eventually she would drown. All she could do was hope that her friends would come for her before the pool filled.

In the city, Noah had gone to the local wildlife centre. He was still furious about Troy's failure to perform as a leader...hell, as a person. He had managed to allow Tarantaulus to take Emma, and as far as he could see, Troy was doing nothing of use. He was still five steps behind Tarantaulus at every turn. So far, all they knew was that the creature seemed to be after their loved ones, aiming to bait them into making yet more mistakes and defeat themselves.

Noah knew that running off on his own was not the best step for teamwork, but right now, he was beginning to question the value of a team that would follow Troy so blindly. Jordan had told them that his dad was out of town on manoeuvres right now, and his own parents had headed upstate to visit some aunt or other, which meant that Noah had already figured the next move. Only Jake's parents were currently in town, and it was surely only a matter of time before Tarantaulus figured that out. He was confident he would be there in time if anything did happen. For now, he just wanted to do some research. So far, the creature was five steps ahead, if he had anything to do with it, he would at least put them on an even footing.

"Hey there." He heard a cheery voice behind him. He turned around to see Quinn standing there, wearing a t-shirt marking her as an employee of the wildlife centre. "Last night was pretty special huh?"

"Yeah, it was really something." Noah agreed, turning his attention back to the spiders in the arachnid enclosure. He was looking around at the literature for something that would help. It was slow going; he had to admit that biology wasn't really his strongest science. He was, if anything, a little creeped out by bugs, and not too fond of being this close, even separated by glass.

"It really got a lot of these guys riled up. Animals are really sensitive to stuff like this." Quinn told him. "Did you know that the insects and the arachnids went into kind of a mating frenzy about seven months ago?"

"That's not really a mental image..." His words tailed off, before he looked at her. "That was during the last meteor shower...right before the Warstar showed up."

"It's a survival instinct; they seemed to know what was coming." Quinn told him, reaching into a tank and taking out a spider. She saw the look in Noah's face as he pulled away from her and just laughed. "Come on, it's harmless."

"It's...a tarantula." He stated, before she just giggled.

"Come on, Petunia here is harmless, aren't you Petunia?" She stated as she looked to the spider. "So, what are you doing here anyway?"

"I have kind of a spider problem." He told her. "I wanted a bit of information."

"Oh...well...couldn't you have asked Emma?" She asked. "She knows almost as much as I do, we're in the same club..."

"She's kind of busy right now." Noah told her. Quinn came across, holding Petunia.

"Hold out your hand." She told him. Noah just looked at her like she was insane. "Come on, she's harmless."

"She's a tarantula." Noah repeated. "She's poisonous."

"Oh please, they only use them in movies because they look big and impressive." Quinn told him. "Their venom's barely any more dangerous to a human than a bee sting...which...ironically I'm allergic to."

Noah's hand was shaking uncontrollably as she took his wrist and allowed Petunia to crawl onto his hand. He didn't doubt what she said about the venom, but just like previous monsters, he was sure when Tarantaulus was mutated, the venom was mutated too. He remembered Gia telling him that Cat just went limp when she was bitten. He watched her moving, and tried his best to separate his anxiety from the analytical part of his mind.

"They use their venom to immobilise prey right?" Noah asked.

"That's right. Just be careful of her abdomen." Quinn warned him, pointing to the rear of the spider. "See those hairs?"

"I can't...really miss them." Noah gulped.

"Well, they're actually barbed." Quinn told him. "They're coated in an irritant. If she thinks she's in danger from a predator, she'll shake them loose. They work their way under the skin and cause serious pain. Well, they would if you were a rat or something, in humans it just itches like crazy."

Noah just made another mental note. He remembered seeing Jake after the battle. It looked like a very severe allergic reaction. It seemed that he had been on the receiving end of that attack. Quinn looked up at a corner and sighed.

"Great, one of the little ones has been a little busy." She groaned, approaching a web that extended out of a tank. Noah immediately looked around, worried that it might have used the web to escape. Quinn just took a spray bottle from her belt and sprayed the web.

Noah just watched as the webbing dissolved and disappeared. His jaw hung open as he saw this. He took the bottle from her.

"What...what is this?" He asked her.

"Coconut oil and vinegar." She said with a shrug. "It dissolves spider webs."

She took Petunia from him and placed her back in the tank. She took a few beep breaths as she tried to steady herself.

"You know Noah, I really had a great time last night." She began to tell him. "I...um...I was just wondering...would you maybe like to go...?"

As she turned around, he was gone. She just sighed deeply and slumped down on a bench, wiping her nose.

"I guess not." She muttered, before reaching into her work bag for a jar of flies. "I guess it's just us for lunch."


	6. The Web is Complete

In the late afternoon, Jordan handed over some cash, paying for the extra-large slushie he had bought as he and Jake hung around a Seven Eleven. It wasn't what they'd choose to be doing, but with Tarantaulus on the loose, and having suffered a few key losses at his hands, they were taking every precaution they could. Jordan's dad was out on manoeuvres with his unit, while Troy's parents were out of town, visiting one of his aunts that had fallen ill in another city. That put them for the first time in the position of having a head start. They had already surmised that Tarantaulus had to know who they were, and was using that knowledge to snatch people important to the Rangers. Jake was the only one with family still in the city right now, so it wasn't hard to figure out that was where he'd likely strike next.

Jake was standing by the microwave, waiting on his burrito finishing, keeping his eye on the housing estate across the street. His dad had done well for the family, getting in on the ground floor of a housing development a few years back. The new build homes had been very reasonably priced to entice early sales back then, and so Jake and his family enjoyed a relatively comfortable lifestyle. Four bedrooms, two-car garage, upstairs and downstairs bathrooms, and a swimming pool in the back yard, all things considered, the Hollings place was a pretty good home for the family. The neighbourhood was pretty quiet all things considered, the kind of place where kids felt safe to play in the street. All that had changed somewhat when the Warstar showed up. Jake hated the thought that he had brought this war to his own front door.

"Any sign?" Jordan asked him. Jake just sighed.

"If there was, don't you think I'd have said something?" Jake asked sarcastically in response. "That is my house across the street."

"Right, sorry." Jordan answered, taking a sip of his smoothie. "So, when do your parents normally get home?"

"They should be heading home any time now." Jake informed him. His parents ran a funeral parlour in the city together. It was a pretty good set-up all things considered, it meant that they were generally home in good time, and always had plenty of time with him. Jordan just looked at the neighbourhood.

"This is a pretty nice place." Jordan admitted. "It's a lot better than some of the neighbourhoods I've stayed in."

"It's alright." Jake responded. As the microwave bleeped, informing Jake that his burrito was ready, he opened it up, and started to unwrap it.

"It's better than alright, it's pretty amazing." Jordan commented. "Some of the bases I was on as a kid were near the skids. I used to see scumbags like Spider through the fence all the time..."

"Kids in good neighbourhoods make bad decisions too." Jake cut him off. "Spider's dad is a forty percent shareholder in Cerberus. He had all the advantages and all the stuff that comes with having money and he still did what he did."

Jordan paused as he heard Jake say this. It was one of the things he hadn't really thought about. Spider indeed was one of the better off kids in the school. He didn't really have the excuses of being poor, or growing up in the wrong part of town, or any of the other sob stories he had heard the papers spin about the kids that ended up in juvie.

"Tell me, why are you taking this so personally?" Jake asked Jordan. "You've had a chip on your shoulder about those fugitives since we first heard about them. Two of them are still in the ER!"

"They're scumbags Jake, they deserve everything they get!" Jordan stated, before putting his taco in the microwave. "When my mom was pregnant with me, some kids held her at knifepoint at a mall. They took her wallet and her car keys."

"Jordan..."

"They left her miles from home, with no money and five months pregnant!" Jordan interrupted him. "If it wasn't for some cab driver letting her get a ride home for free, she'd have had to walk nearly ten miles back to the base! They didn't care!"

"Jordan, that's terrible, it's unforgivable, but you can't tar everyone with the same brush." Jake told him.

"They made their choices in life. They deserve everything they get!" Jordan reiterated.

"Well what about me? Do you think I deserve everything I get?" Jake asked him.

"Jake, what are you talking about?" Jordan asked him.

"Last summer I spent a couple of weeks in juvie." Jake stated. Jordan just looked at him, a little surprised to hear this.

"But...but you..." He stammered, trying to imagine Jake being locked up. "Why?"

"I thought it didn't matter." Jake responded. Jordan just shook his head.

"But...I know you." Jordan pressed on. "You're not like that."

"Well, like I said, even good kids sometimes make bad decisions." Jake told him. "Since I went to high school, one of the kids seemed to take the fact I'm Jewish as a reason to get on my case. He did all the stuff you'd expect, graffiti, name calling, he even had a bunch of guys jump me once after soccer practice. One day, I'd finally had enough and I went looking for him."

"I'm guessing it didn't end well." Jordan surmised.

"You might have heard that at times, I have kind of an anger management problem." Jake carried on. "That day, I just completely lost it. I went to his apartment block, and I called him out as he was leaving his apartment. We fought...and he went over a railing on the second floor."

Jake looked to him and sighed.

"It's not something I'm exactly proud of, I don't advertise it." Jake told him. "The kid and his family left town shortly afterwards, so my parents told everyone that I spent summer at a Conner McKnight Soccer Camp out of town."

"Jake..."

"I made a mistake, and it's only good luck that another kid didn't lose his life because of it." Jake told him. "I'm sorry about what happened to you, but I know first-hand. Not everyone that does something bad is necessarily a bad person."

Before he could answer, Jordan noticed some movement down the street.

"Jake, isn't that your dad's car?" Jordan asked him. Jake looked around, and confirmed it with a nod.

"So much for my snack." He replied as he tossed his burrito into the trash. Jordan did the same with his slushie, leaving his taco in the microwave despite the shopkeeper's protests.

Back at the abandoned football stadium, Cat was humming a tune, looking around the stadium for some sign of a rescue. Eric, who was strung up above the floor a short way off was struggling to get free, but only succeeded in exhausting himself. Louise was nearby, and had long since given up trying to free herself from the webbing. She just looked over to Eric, and jerked her head in Cat's direction.

"Is she alright?" She asked. Eric just looked at her and smiled.

"She's Cat." He answered. "She has a pretty unique way of dealing with things."

"I'll say." Louise responded. "Cat! Would you mind not singing for a while?"

"What else am I going to do?" Cat asked. Unlike the others, she was completely cocooned in the webbing. "It keeps my mind off the fact I really need to pee." Louise just groaned.

"I don't know, just...think of something."

"I spy with my little eye..."

"You know what? Just...keep singing." Louise replied, rolling her eyes. Cat just went back to her song, while Louise looked to Eric. "Seriously, what is with that girl?"

"Well, it's not like we have anything better to do." He answered with a shrug. "I guess until someone lets us out, we're kind of stuck here."

"I guess." Louise agreed dejectedly. "Well, it's not like I have much better to do."

"The job search isn't going well?" He asked her. Louise just shook her head.

"There aren't a lot of places hiring." She told him.

"Well, I did offer once." He reminded her. "Why don't you work for me? We can always use a hand around the office."

"That's sweet, but do you really think that would be such a good idea?" Louise asked him. "The papers already love the idea of us having an affair, do you think me coming to work for you would do much to change that?"

"You know what? I'm getting sick to death of caring about the God Damned papers." He grumbled. "Seriously, there was an independent inquiry, Cerberus was cleared of negligence. We have nothing to be ashamed of."

"That's not the way they see it." Louise answered. "As far as they're concerned..."

"As far as I'm concerned, they can kiss my ass." Eric told her bluntly. "Louise, we've been friends for years. There's no reason for that to end because of Gerald."

"Well, you were his friend too." She reminded him.

"Yeah, I think I kind of kissed that goodbye when I shot at him and told him to stay away from Gia." Eric reminded her. Cat started to bounce around as much as she could, bound to the pillar.

"OK, I can't wait anymore!" She called out. "Hello? Scary Spider guy? I really have to pee!"

"Just...try not to think about it." Eric told her. "I'm sure the Rangers will be coming soon."

"I really hope so." Louise commented. "My arms are killing me!"

"Tell me about it." Eric agreed, tugging at the webs holding his arms over his head. "The sooner they get us out of here, the better. The girls are probably wondering where we are."

Back in Jake's street, the Hollings were getting some things out of their car, when a dark shadow sped over their car. Mr Hollings looked up, just in time to see Tarantaulus landing in the street a little way from him.

"It's one of those...things!" Mr Hollings rushed out.

"The name's Tarantaulus." He answered, tagging them both with webbing, stopping them from running away. He started to draw them towards himself. "Remember..."

"Leave them alone!" Jake called out, swinging his Snake-axe. Tarantaulus was sent sprawling across the street, straight into the path of an on-coming car. It struck him, sending him flying. Jake turned to his parents, seeing they weren't bound effectively, and could still flee. "Get inside!"

"But..."

"That thing's coming back, get inside and lock the doors now!" Jake instructed them. His father helped his wife up and took her inside as Jordan and Troy joined him. True to form, Tarantaulus had recovered, and was heading back.

"I don't know what your problem is, and frankly I don't care!" Troy stated. "Where are our friends?"

"You'll find them soon enough." Tarantaulus taunted him. "I understand Burrows, Emma is a cute one. Still, it is a bit desperate to be so eager to take my cast-offs."

"Cast-offs?" Troy asked. It was then that the penny dropped. "Spider?"

"But...how?" Jordan asked.

"Vrak gave me this power." Spider told them. "He gave me everything I need to take my revenge."

"Everyone should have a dream!" Jordan called out, pulling out his Robo Blade. Before he knew what was happening though, Tarantaulus fired a line of webbing. He caught Jordan, Jake and Troy's weapons, and whipped them out of their hands.

"Shit!" Troy yelled as he and Jake pulled their blasters. Tarantaulus dodged their blasts with the kind of agility that seemed like he knew exactly where each blast was going to come, allowing them to sail past him by inches, before grabbing them in his extra limbs. Pulling the blasters from their hands, he threw them into Jordan, sending them all sprawling.

"Well, this wasn't exactly what I was after, but I suppose it'll have to do." He commented, presenting their weapons to them. "Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Before he could finish, he had to duck as a blast came from behind him, sailing only just over his head. He didn't have time to recover before Gia slammed a Tiger Claw into his jaw in a horrendous uppercut, knocking him backwards. His extra legs managed to catch him and flip him back upright to face them. Noah and Gia were standing before him, weapons at the ready.

"YOU!" He yelled. "How...?"

"It's amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it." Noah taunted him. "Face it Spider, when it comes to matching wits, you'll always come off second best."

Tarantaulus saw that he was outmatched, and just rose up on his legs, suspending him off the ground.

"Well, I suppose I have enough to be going on with." He replied. "The web is complete. If you want what belongs to you back, you should look to the ocean...just beware of its sting."

With that, he leapt into the distance, leaving the Rangers in his wake. Troy just fell to his knees, he had been outmanoeuvred yet again, this time leaving half the remaining team without weapons. Jake came over to Noah and Gia.

"Hey, look who's finally back in action." He complimented Gia. "How...?"

"I got some good advice." Noah told him. "Come on, we need to get to the command centre."

"Noah..."

"He's told us where he is." Noah interrupted him. "We can work on the plan there."

"Wait, did I miss a couple of pages?" Jordan asked. "He told us where he is?"

"Look to the ocean, but beware its sting?" Noah asked derisively. "The football team that went bankrupt a couple of years back...they were called the Stingrays."

Gia and Jake both confirmed the detail with a nod. It was the benefit of local knowledge. While Jordan and Troy had only been in town since the beginning of the year, Jake, Gia, and Noah had all lived in Harwood their whole lives.

"So, he's baited the trap." Jordan surmised. "Now he's telling us where it is..."

"So that we walk right in." Troy concluded. He then looked to Noah. "Noah..."

"I'm not good with strategy." Noah conceded. "Science is my thing, but tactics are yours. If we go to the command centre, we can figure out what we're doing from there."

With that, they disappeared, hoping that Gosei could help them figure out a way around Tarantaulus' trap that didn't involve walking right in.

Back at the stadium, Louise just looked to Eric.

"Um...if we get out of this..."

"When." Eric corrected her. "We have to remain positive."

"When we get out of this," she began again, "I'd really appreciate that job."

"Really?" He asked with a smile. "What changed your mind?"

"It's largely to do with the fact the motel really don't seem too keen about letting me pay with IOU's." She replied with a small laugh. "It's only temporary though, if I get something else..."

"Hey, if I can help, I want to." Eric assured her. Just then, Tarantaulus came in from the ceiling, scrambling down his web. He got to the ground level, and started to string up the stolen weapons around the room. Eric saw Jake's Snake Axe a little way from him.

"That can't be a good sign." He commented. Just then, Cat stopped singing.

"Um...Mr Spider person?" She asked. Tarantaulus snapped around, and leapt across some webbing, landing in front of her. He clicked his mandibles menacingly.

"What?" He demanded shortly.

"Um...it's just...I really need to pee." She told him. "Can you let me out to..,?"

Tarantaulus roared at her, bringing all his limbs to bear, before slamming the extra legs into the pillar either side of her.

"Don't worry, you won't have to worry about that for long." He told her. "This will all end soon enough."

With that, he scurried off, continuing his work. Cat just gulped, and a couple of tears ran down her face.

"Cat?" Eric asked her. "Are you alright?"

"I don't need to pee anymore." She replied softly. All things considered, Eric couldn't blame her.


	7. Tarantaulus' Hunt

The Rangers were gathered around in the command centre, coming together to plan their next move. It wasn't like they'd never had to worry about innocent victims before, but this time in particular; they had a lot more to worry about. Tarantaulus actually knew them. He knew what mattered to them, and he had placed the people they cared about the most in harms' way. Although they were always careful to avoid civilian casualties, this time in particular, there simply was no margin for error.

"So, it's confirmed." Noah sighed as he and Tensou came back from the lab. They'd taken a sample from the section of leg Jake had cut off Tarantaulus earlier, and ran it through the computer, comparing it with the records at the juvenile detention centre. "At one time, that thing was Spider."

"So much for people going to Juvie not turning into monsters." Jake muttered under his breath. Jordan noticeably tensed up. Having heard Jake's story from him, he didn't necessarily see things as being as black and white as he had before, but in Spider's case, he wasn't so sure. Even before he was mutated, Spider had put dozens...maybe hundreds of lives at risk with his bomb plot. It was a miracle no one had died, and many, Ernie included, were still recovering from their injuries. Many more needed counselling or other assistance to get over the attacks. Even without the mutation, he was too dangerous to be allowed out on the streets. Now though, he was bringing that same remorseless cunning and intellect into seeking vengeance on the people that had brought him to justice.

"How is that even possible?" Jake asked. "I thought the combination of chemicals that created the Toxic Mutants was unique to that area, that it couldn't be recreated."

"Not to mention it shouldn't have worked this quickly." Gia added. "Mutation takes time; the mutants that exist now took years to develop."

"Tarantaulus mentioned that Vrak gave him his powers. It looks like Vrak found a way to refine the process, to make it more stable." Noah told them. "I'd say that Tarantaulus is probably only the beginning of our problems."

"We have no idea how many mutants were created the first time." Jake summarised the situation as he got up off the console he was leaning against. "At least we were pretty sure their numbers were limited. If they can produce more..."

"Then there's no telling what kind of army we could be facing." Troy interrupted him, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "We need to deal with Tarantaulus first, then we need to make sure he's the last one they can make."

"Fine, but we get the others first." Gia announced. "So, what's the plan?"

"Before you begin, I feel that at this juncture, it will be for the best that we seek outside help." Gosei announced.

"Who did you have in mind?" Jake asked. "I'm sure the Samurai are busy, last time I texted her, Lauren said her brother was making arrangements for his wedding."

"That's right, the prop 8 thing." Noah replied. "I guess he was serious about wanting to get married at home."

"As fascinating as all this is, I would like to call your attention back to the present." Gosei responded sharply. "There are other Rangers that still have powers, in particular this one has a particular knowledge of predators, and can more than hold his own when the action starts. Since three of you have lost your weapons, and you are a Ranger down, you could use all the help you can get."

Just then, there was a flash of light, and before they knew it, Theo was standing before them. He looked thoroughly confused, and looked around in alarm, seeing the command centre. The Rangers were around him.

"Um...I know this seems odd..."

"Well it's certainly different than swinging on vines." Theo replied as he turned to the team. "So, this is your command centre?"

"Wait, Luen's a Ranger?" Troy asked.

"Theo." Theo corrected him. "And yes, Jungle Fury Blue Ranger, at your service."

He looked to Tensou, and flicked a thumb in his direction.

"So, this is your mentor?" He asked.

"Actually, it's the big tiki head in the wall." Jake corrected him. "His name's Gosei, and he gets a little tetchy if you point it out."

"Well, after RJ, I guess I can put up with just about anything." Theo said with a shrug. "Alright, so what's the situation with that Spider thing?"

Tensou generated a holographic blueprint of the stadium. He gathered the others around.

"Alright, so here's the plan." Troy began.

Back at the stadium, in the swimming pool in the basement, Emma renewed her struggle to get out. Spider had turned on the outlet on a low setting so that she could watch the water slowly rising. She had been here for a couple of hours now, and the water was already up past her waist, and slowly rising up to her chest. Her helmet was at the bottom of the pool, having been removed so that she would have no breathing apparatus. She tried to release herself, but it was no use. The webbing was simply too strong. Tarantaulus came into the pool area, looking down on her.

"Well, it shouldn't be too long before your friends are here." He told her. Emma couldn't say anything. The webbing over her mouth effectively gagged her, preventing her from saying a word. He came around to the side of the pool she was on, and leaned over, bringing his face close to hers. "You know, it doesn't have to be like this. Vrak changed me; he could do the same for you."

Emma just glared at him hatefully. He could guess by context what her gaze meant.

"Now, I don't think you've really thought this through." He told her. "Just think, there'll be no more senseless destruction, no more pollution. It'll just be animals ruling the earth, just as they were always meant to."

Emma just turned her face away from him. He just laughed as he saw this.

"Oh well, suit yourself then." He responded as he stroked the side of her face. "I guess all that's left to see is which of your friends I destroy first. Personally, I hope its Noah."

As he left, Emma just slumped down in her bonds. There was no way for her to release herself. She could only hope that one of her friends would come in time to save her. The only thing she knew was that she would sooner drown than join Spider as one of the mutants.

Meanwhile, the Rangers arrived, bursting through one of the entrances. Theo led the way as they made their way along the passageway towards the centre of the stadium. There was webbing hanging from just about every surface.

"Wow, Tarantaulus has been busy." Jake commented.

"Spiders can spin webs several feet across in a matter of minutes." Theo informed them. "Just think what a spider the size of a human could do."

"Normally, the main trap is at the centre of the web." Troy reminded them. "We just need to keep moving, and try not to attract attention to ourselves."

"Here." Theo stated, handing Jake his Jungle Tonfa, before summoning up his Jungle Fans. "It's not much, but at least you won't have to rely on colourful language."

Gia handed her blaster to Troy, keeping her Tiger Claw, while Noah handed Jake his blaster, keeping his Shark Bowgun close. Jordan just threw up his hands.

"Great, why am I the one left unarmed?" He asked. Jake just tapped the serrated edges of his armour.

"Your armour's a weapon remember?" He asked as they continued to make their way through the corridor.

"Guys, just keep sharp." Troy stated as they got to the end of the corridor. The stadium opened up into the main arena. They all stood, completely gobsmacked by what they saw. The web was truly immense, with strands extending from the ceiling to the floor, and criss-crossing the whole of the stands. Theo gestured to Jake, and gestured round to the right. Noah took Gia round to the left, while Jordan and Troy headed down into the gridiron.

"Just remember, it's the vertical strands of webbing that are sticky." Theo told them over the communicator. "The horizontal ones are the ones the spider can walk over, watch for movement in them."

Tarantaulus had already come back into the arena, and was waiting up in the rafters for them. The stadium was far too large for him to keep an eye on, but then he was already settling into his new instincts. He didn't need to see to know there were others here.

Down in the stands, Gia and Noah made their way around, and happened upon Cat, cocooned to a pillar. Gia came over, stopping by her.

"Rangers!" She called out, only for Gia to hold a finger over her lips to silence her. It was too much to hope for that Tarantaulus wouldn't know they were coming, but that was no reason to announce their presence too early. Gia gestured to Noah, who handed her a can of spray.

"This will dissolve the web." Gia explained, beginning to spray the webbing. Cat watched her working, while Noah looked around, seeing Louise and Eric strung up nearby.

"Where's..." Noah began to ask, before cutting himself off. He couldn't see Emma anywhere, but he knew that he couldn't use her name. "The Pink Ranger, where did he take her?"

"I saw him take her down to the basement." Cat informed him as Gia finally managed to release one of her arms. Cat pointed to a door at the end of the field. "He took her down there."

"Thanks." He told her. "Yellow, can you take care of her?"

"I'll be fine here." Gia replied, carrying on her work.

Elsewhere in the stadium, Jordan and Troy were heading through the centre of the field, and found Eric and Louise strung up. They were both a couple of feet from the ground, complicating the rescue somewhat.

"OK, we've got two more of the hostages." Jordan stated over his communicator. "What about...?"

"There's no sign of her over here." Jake stated as he looked around. "But I have seen something that could be useful. My axe is here!"

Theo was busy looking around for Tarantaulus when he saw Jake reaching out for his axe. He held up a hand.

"Jake, don't vibrate the web!" Theo warned him. Unfortunately it was too late. Jake grabbed his Snake Axe, pulling the blade against the webbing to release it. Just as he did this, a length of webbing tagged Jake on the back, and yanked him hard into a pillar, shattering it with the impact. Tarantaulus started to scurry down the web.

"Alright guys, remember what I told you!" Theo announced, launching himself up the web. He took care to land his foot and hand holds on the horizontal strands, leaping up the webbing with seemingly impossible agility. Troy and Jordan just watched him in awe.

Gia meanwhile, leapt onto the webbing, and sliced down as much of it as she could, causing Louise and Eric to fall towards the ground. Troy and Jordan quickly ran forward and caught them. She hadn't completely released them, she had only cut them down, knowing that it was more important to get them to safety than it was to release them.

Troy and Jordan started spraying them with the solution, dissolving the webbing still attached to them and helped them up.

"Yellow, get them to safety." Troy instructed Gia, knowing that would be her priority. The hostages were three of the people Gia cared most about in the world; he knew she would find it difficult to concentrate on the battle until she knew they were safe.

"I'll come back." Gia assured them as she took Cat, Louise and Eric, and ran with them for the exit. Theo took a hard shot, and tumbled backwards from the web, but opening his Jungle Fans, he slowed his descent, and flipped over, landing on his feet. Tarantaulus let out a hellish scream, at which the arena flooded with Loogies.

"I can't see Emma anywhere!" Troy called out.

"Where's Noah?" Jordan asked, striking down the first of his foes. "I haven't seen him..."

"Guys!" Jake called out as he recovered, leaping into the centre of the stadium. He threw Jordan his Robo Blade, and Troy his Dragon Sword and blaster. "Look what I found!"

"Not before time." Troy stated as he cut down a couple of his foes, but stumbled over some webbing. The web made things hard going.

"This web is ridiculous!" Jake complained loudly.

"I have an idea." Jordan told them. "It's risky though."

"What do we have to do?" Troy asked.

"Hope you can see through smoke." Jordan told him, attaching his Vulcan Bullet to the Robo Blade's blaster mode. Troy knew what he was alluding to. His shot would burn away the webbing, which was now safe to do since there were no more hostages in the web, but it would also cause a dangerous fire. They would not have long before they would be in serious danger. He looked around at the Loogies, who seemed to have little difficulty negotiating the web.

"Do it!" Troy instructed him. "Theo, Jake, heads up, it's about to get seriously hot in here!"

With that, Jordan aimed up into the centre of the web, and pulled the trigger.

Elsewhere, Noah was fighting his way through the basement, being held up by the army of Loogies in his way. As he got down into the old gym though, he couldn't see Emma, not at first.

Emma was trapped under the water by now. She'd only just had time for one big breath before the water raised over her nose. It was now over her head, and she was just waiting until the air in her lungs ran out. Her hearing was distorted, but she was sure she could hear someone calling out for her. Unfortunately, she couldn't reply. Finally, she slumped forward, her vision rimmed in black as she started to pass out.

On the surface, Noah slipped slightly, but managed to regain his footing, taking out a few more Loogies. He looked down, realising that the water was overflowing from the pool. He looked down, and saw Emma trapped underneath the water, bound to the side of the pool. He destroyed the last of his adversaries, and without a second thought, dived straight into the pool. His power over water gave him an impressive swimming pace, and he could only pray that it was enough. He saw to his horror that Emma wasn't conscious. Without her helmet, she was drowning. He couldn't free her, and so he took up his bowgun, and blasted the wall, destroying chunks of the concrete she was bound to. He gathered Emma up in his arms, and surged out of the water, propelling both of them onto the edge.

"Emma, Emma!" He called out, hoping for a response. When he didn't get one, he pulled off his helmet. Her chest wasn't moving. Putting his face next to hers, he confirmed that she wasn't breathing. He immediately began CPR, pressing down on her chest rapidly.

"Oh God, please don't do this." He begged her, tilting her head back. He performed a couple of rescue breaths, before continuing with the chest compressions.

"Emma, please don't do this." He begged her. "It's...it's not fair. You don't deserve this."

Back in the stadium, Tarantaulus and the Loogies were struggling in the burning stadium. Jordan and the others were having fewer problems, having expected the gambit. Theo took Tarantaulus down as the others finished off the Loogies.

Jordan started to approach Tarantaulus, clipping his Vulcan Bullet to his blaster. He could feel his strength slipping away, and held up his hands, begging for mercy.

"No, please don't!" He screamed. "I...I surrender!"

"Did that matter to you?" Jordan asked him in disgust. "Did you give a second thought to the people you hurt? To the people you could have killed?"

"Please, I beg of you!" Tarantaulus continued to cry out. Troy approached him.

"Jordan, wait." He stated. He looked to the creature, seeing for the first time the device attached to the back of his head. "What's this?"

"Some kind of mind control?" Jake asked. "Jordan..."

"It doesn't matter, he's a mutant!" Jordan spat. "He's too dangerous..."

"He was changed against his will, he's an experiment!" Troy implored him. "All of this, it's not his fault!"

"What about the bombs?" Jordan asked. "Do you think he'd have cared if he killed all of us? What if you hadn't saved Emma, do you think this scumbag would have been broken up about it?"

"That doesn't matter; we don't have the right to be judge jury and executioner." Jake told him, putting a hand on Jordan's shoulder. "Sometimes good people make bad choices remember? Sometimes they don't have a choice at all."

"We can take him to the lab." Troy suggested. "Maybe in time, Tensou can find a way to turn him back, and then he can serve his time."

Jordan just looked to Jake, and remembering his story, he sighed.

"We don't have the right to destroy a helpless opponent." He answered, before pistol-whipping Tarantaulus into unconsciousness. He put his blaster away. "Just...don't make me regret it."

Troy used his Tornado Twister card to put out the flames, before looking around. There was still no sign of Emma or Noah. Theo looked to the basement entrance.

"Wait...what about there?" He suggested. Troy ran down the hall, followed closely by the others. They arrived to find Noah still working furiously to help her.

Just as they got in, Emma finally started to cough and gag. Noah quickly sprayed the webbing on her mouth, peeling it away to allow her to get rid of the water she was coughing up. He helped her into a seated position; smiling, overjoyed to see she was alright.

Emma saw him, and realised what had happened, and remembered what Spider had told her. It was so obvious now; she didn't know how she could have missed it. Troy was quickly by her side, and held her in his arms.

"Emma, thank God you're alright." Troy stated, looking to Noah. "Thanks Noah, you did an amazing thing."

"It's alright." He replied, before backing off and leaving Emma and Troy to their moment. Theo just coughed as he saw the scene unfolding.

"Um...guys, I don't know what things are like here, but in my day, we left before the emergency services showed up." Theo told them.

"It's like that here too." Jake answered, carrying Tarantaulus' unconscious frame across his shoulders. "Alright Tensou, do the honours."

With that, they all disappeared, leaving before they would have to explain what had happened to the authorities.


	8. Some Needed Respite

The Rangers appeared back in the command centre, after teleporting out before the authorities arrived. Troy immediately turned to the others.

"Alright, we all need to get back home before anyone suspects anything." Jake told them. He had to make a judgement call on the situation. They all knew that they had a far more serious battle up ahead. If Vrak really had found a way to create more Toxic Mutants, especially if they had intentions of using humans to do so, then they needed to find a way to shut down his lab for good.

That said though, he also knew the girls would want to get home to check on the released hostages. Tarantaulus had taken Gia's mother and girlfiend, and Emma's dad. It was only natural that they would want to check that they had made it through the ordeal alright. It was also beginning to get late, and it wouldn't be too long before their parents would expect them to contact home. He looked to Jake who was carrying Tarantaulus' unconscious body.

"Jake, you and Noah take him to the lab; see if Tensou has some way to keep him secure. Until we can turn him back, we need to treat him as a threat." Troy told them. "We'll all meet back here tomorrow. We'll tell our parents we're all going camping for a couple of days, that way we'll have a bit more leeway. We need to figure out how we're going to move on Vrak. Until then, everyone just get some rest. You've all done good work."

He then turned to Theo and smiled.

"Thanks for your help." He stated. "It felt really good to work with another Ranger."

"Who knows, maybe it'll happen again some time." Theo replied cheerfully. "It's been a while, but it does feel good to get back into the suit I have to admit."

"Well, maybe it'll happen again some time." Troy suggested. "I'm starting to get a feeling this thing isn't something most people just walk away from."

"Not for long dude." Theo assured him, flicking a thumb over his shoulder. "Well, I ought to..."

"Theo, you're on an island." Jordan informed him. "One that doesn't appear on any map or sit on any shipping lanes."

"Oh." Theo replied. "Um...I guess I'd appreciate a lift back to the Brainfreeze then."

"Alright, two to teleport Mr Gosei." Jordan replied, standing with his hand on Theo's shoulder. Theo just looked at him.

"Really?" He asked. "You're going with a Star Trek line?"

"What else do you expect me to say?" Jordan asked as they disappeared, heading back to town. Troy just shook his head in disbelief.

"I don't know what's worse, when he goes psycho, or he turns into geeky fan boy." He muttered as Gia and Emma teleported home. He looked up as Noah and Jake came back.

"That should keep him for now." Noah told him. "Tensou has him locked up in a storage unit. He'll need to build something suitable for the research we'll need if we even hope to turn him back to normal."

"If anyone can manage it, you and Tensou will." Troy told him. "Jake, you should get back to your parents. They had a pretty good fright, they'll probably be wondering where you are."

"And why they can't contact me." He sighed, turning on his cell phone and seeing the dozen or so messages they had sent. He looked away as he brought the phone down on the edge of a console, smashing it. Just like Emma's bike, he knew that if they were going to accept any explanation for why he didn't contact them immediately, he would have to make a sacrifice. He looked down to the ruined phone in his hand.

"All those songs, all those pictures, all those numbers..."

"I kept telling you to back up your memory at the store." Noah said with very little sympathy. Jake just glared at him.

"What about you?" He asked. Noah just smirked.

"My parents are out of town." He reminded him. "It'll be at least tomorrow before they hear the news of the attack. I have plenty of time before they start to worry."

"Me too." Troy answered. "Jake, would you mind? I need to talk to Noah about something."

Jake just teleported out, preparing the story he would tell his parents when he got home. That just left Noah and Troy alone in the command centre.

Noah just turned to face Troy. He wasn't sure what he was going to say, but he had a feeling that it wasn't likely to end well. During the day, he had openly defied Troy, walked away from his duty because of their failure to stop Tarantaulus taking Emma. He had come back, but only because he realised that he needed Troy's greater strategic knowledge to save Emma. Looking at him now, he still felt a lot of anger and resentment. For the second time, he had saved Emma's life, and yet it was Troy's arms she ended up in.

"Troy..."

"Noah, please just let me say this." Troy told him. "I really want you to know how grateful I am for what you did. Emma...she wouldn't be around now if it wasn't for you."

Noah just nodded, accepting the thank you.

"It's alright." Noah told him. "I just...did what needed to be done."

"Noah, what happened earlier, when you yelled at me, when you walked out...?"

"I was just frustrated." Noah interrupted him. "I realised it was a mistake when I left, that's why I came back. I just...I let the fact Tarantaulus was taking so much from us, and we all seemed to be unable to do anything in return. I just...I lost it."

"I understand frustration, we were all feeling it." Troy told him. "But we can't risk anything that splits the team. When you called me out, it didn't seem to just be frustration."

"Troy..."

"I know you all question my mental state because of my dreams." Troy continued. "I question myself a lot too. I don't fully understand it, but I was once told that I have some kind of unique mental ability, something that not many humans have."

"You think you're psychic?" Noah asked him. Troy just shrugged.

"Like I said, I don't really understand it, not many people do, no one I've met anyway." Troy answered as he leaned against a console. "My whole life, I've had dreams, many of which ended up coming to pass. Since I came to Harwood...that's only gotten stronger, I now sometimes have the dreams while I'm awake."

"That's pretty freaky." Noah agreed. He was still a sceptic by nature; he preferred things that he could test in a laboratory, things he could recreate with technology and experiments. He liked his conspiracy theories, like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, but mostly just as interesting stories. In general, if he couldn't see it with his own eyes, or touch it with his own hands; he was unable to truly believe in its existence. That said, since becoming a Ranger, he was becoming open to a lot more ideas. He had already seen things that only months before he would have deemed to be completely impossible by any branch of science.

"Well, part of that ability is...I get feelings about people too." Troy told him. "That's why it was so easy for me to accept and trust all of you when all this began. Noah, when you turned on me, it didn't feel like just frustration. It felt like there was a lot of real anger behind it. If there's something you need to get off your chest, then I need to hear it."

"Troy, its fine..."

"Noah, we can't risk another split in the team like we had today." Troy reiterated. "I'll let it go for now, but if there is something eating away at you, then we need to get it out in the open. These things have a habit of getting out of hand."

"I'll be fine." Noah assured him. "Now, if you don't mind, I need an extra thick shake, and about fourteen hours' sleep. Now we know that Spider's off the streets, there's no need for any more patrols I guess."

With that, Noah just disappeared. Troy just looked to Tensou.

"I guess that'll have to do for now." He stated. "We'll be back tomorrow early for briefing. Vrak's new mutant making process has to be shut down permanently."

Back at the Brainfreeze, Theo and Jordan arrived, finding Luen just finishing up with a customer. He smiled as he saw them.

"Well, it's nice to see you back." Luen said sarcastically. "Just when all the hard work's already finished."

"Sorry Luen, I wasn't really given much of a choice in the matter." Theo replied. He pulled his Solar Morpher out of his pocket a little to indicate that it was Ranger business. "I was kind of...called away urgently."

"Right, OK, whatever." Luen said with a shrug. "I knew you couldn't stay out of the jumpsuit for long."

He looked to Jordan, and saw that he wasn't wearing one of the Ranger colours. He was wearing denims, and a grey, sleeveless tee. He furrowed his brows.

"So...which one are you?" He asked. Jordan just shrugged.

"I'm not sure myself at times." He replied. Theo just leaned in closely.

"He's the one in the metal suit." Theo informed him. "Thanks for the lift Jordan. How about a banana split on the house?"

"Sure, I never say no to free ice-cream." He answered, taking a seat at the counter. Theo just indicated to Luen to make it.

"I'm just heading into the back to make a call." Theo told Luen. "Make yourself at home Jordan."

"Hey, I spend so much time here, I may as well move in." Jordan said with a smile. "Extra caramel sauce please."

A moment later, Noah walked in, looking exhausted. It wasn't hard to understand why, between his late night, very little sleep, and a hectic day, he had to pretty much be running on fumes. Jordan saw him and gestured him over.

"Hey, I guess I wasn't the only one with this idea." Jordan stated.

"Yeah, I don't think so." Noah grumbled. "I'm just here for a strawberry shake, and then I'm heading home for a well-earned coma."

"Wow, you really know how to have a wild time." He heard a voice behind him. He turned around, to see Quinn there.

"Sorry, I had a late..."

"Yeah, I was up just as late as you, AND I had a full shift." She teased him, shoving him slightly. "You don't hear me complaining do you?"

"It's been kind of a busy day." Noah told her. "By the way, thanks for the spider lesson. It really helped with a project."

"Really? Are you working on anything interesting?" She asked him excitedly, indicating to Luen she wanted a strawberry shake too. "Want to share? Maybe I can help?"

"It's kind of at an early stage." Noah told her. "I just really just want to have this shake, and go home and sleep."

"Well, maybe some other time?" She suggested.

"I'm kind of in the middle of..."

"Oh shoot, is that the time?" Jordan rushed out, leaning across the counter and grabbing a take-away box, emptying the contents of his dish into it and closing it up. "I need to get home. I'll catch you around Noah."

"But..."

"You know...I have that thing?" Jordan said as he started to leave. "I'll catch you tomorrow, remember, 8AM sharp?"

Before Noah could protest, Jordan was gone. He looked to Quinn.

"So...are you sure you can't spare a few minutes?" She asked. "I've spent all day with arachnids, and they aren't exactly great conversation."

"Sure, I guess I can spare some time." Noah answered, going over to a table with her. Outside, Jordan just shook his head and sniggered.

"Noah, you might be a genius, but sometimes you're the dumbest person I've ever met." Jordan commented as he walked away.

Over at the Goodall house, Emma and Gia had teleported back, arriving in an empty house. They knew it would be a while before Eric would be back, so they wanted to be there to alleviate any suspicions. Gia lay down on the couch, and Emma started to look over her, just as they heard the door opening. Eric, Louise and Cat all arrived in the door, Cat wrapped in a blanket.

"Gia, you're OK!" Cat shrieked as she saw her, running over and hugging her. Gia couldn't help smiling as she saw her.

"She insisted I bring her here before taking her home." Eric explained. "She told me you tried to help her."

"Yeah, that probably wasn't my brightest move." Gia told him. "That doesn't mean I wouldn't do it again in a...um...Cat, no offence, but what's that smell?"

"She...um...she was tied up for a long time." Eric started to explain. Cat looked a little sheepish.

"I had to pee." She replied.

"Oh." Gia responded.

"I think it would be for the best if you got cleaned up before you went home." Louise suggested. "Emma, you're about Cat's size, would you mind lending her something to wear?"

"I'm sure I can find something." Emma replied. "I hope you don't mind wearing pink."

"I'll look out some towels." Gia replied, putting her arm around Cat. "You don't know how glad I am you're safe."

"You have the Rangers to thank for that." Cat told her. "They were amazing!"

As they left, Louise just smiled. She was glad to see that the girls were all safe and well. Eric took a seat by her.

"So, that was quite a day huh?" He asked her.

"Well, I guess I can cross getting kidnapped by a giant spider off my bucket list." She chuckled.

"Louise, would you like to stay here tonight?" He asked her. Louise just looked at him. "It's up to you, but I know I'd feel better if I knew you weren't alone tonight..."

"I wasn't looking forward to trying to sleep after that." She admitted. "I'd really appreciate that."

"I'll just get some blankets to make up the couch." Eric told her. "You can have my room."

"Thank you." Louise replied. "You know...for everything. The job, the..."

"Like I keep telling you Louise, anything for a friend." He assured her. "There's wine in the cupboard if you'd like."

"After tonight, that would be perfect." She stated as she looked for some glasses.

Eric meanwhile, went to the linen cupboard to look out some blankets for the night. As he got back, Louise had poured them both a glass of wine.

"I called a cab to take Cat home." Louise told him. "I think its best she doesn't walk home."

"I think you're probably right." Eric agreed, taking his glass from her. "So...what do you think of her?"

"She's definitely something different." Louise said honestly. "I don't really know what to make of her."

"She takes a lot of getting used to." Eric agreed. "But I guess as parents, we're not meant to love our kids' partners right away. I know Troy's pretty much the ideal boyfriend, and I'm still not sure how I feel about Emma dating him."

"I guess this is when we have to accept that our kids aren't kids anymore and just hope we taught them enough to make good choices." She sighed, looking to him. "Where does the time go?"

"The same place as my hair colour." He joked, gesturing to some grey in his hair. She just laughed.

"Well, it could be worse, you still have hair." She told him.

"That's true." He replied, holding up his glass. Louise tapped her glass to his, as they both took a sip.

Meanwhile, up in the girls' room, Emma was in her cupboard, looking out an outfit she didn't mind Cat borrowing, while Cat was in the shower getting cleaned up. They could hear her singing cheerfully. Gia was sitting on the bed with a huge smile on her face.

"I think Cat should be fine with this." Emma told her, tossing some jeans and a t-shirt on the bed. Gia just nodded, still smiling, but when she saw that Emma wasn't, she became a little concerned. Suddenly, she felt badly about her happiness. Getting her mom, Eric and Cat back safely had been the best outcome anyone could have hoped for, but now she was a little unsure about Emma.

"Emma, is...is everything alright?" Gia asked her.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Emma asked her. Gia just pulled a little closer.

"Emma, it's alright to be freaked out." Gia told her. "I know I was."

"I'm sorry?" Emma asked her.

"Emma, you stopped breathing. Noah had to give you CPR." Gia reminded her. "You were technically dead. I know how freaked out I was when I saw you weren't breathing, I can't imagine what..."

"Gia, it's...it's not just that." Emma told her, looking around. Cat was still in the bathroom, getting cleaned up. "Gia, I really need to talk to someone about something."

"Whatever it is, you know you can talk to me about anything." She assured her. "What is it?"

"Gia, Spider told me something when I was in there." Emma continued. "He told me...he told me that Noah likes me."

"Noah..." Gia was about to dismiss this, but before she could, she just thought about it. Suddenly, a lot of things seemed to fall into place. Noah was always making excuses not to be around the others. He had been avoiding spending time with them, Emma and Troy especially. Then, when Emma had been taken, he had screamed at Troy, blaming him and storming out. Thinking about it now, the fight at the plant, the rescue in the pool...it was all beginning to make a lot more sense.

"Gia, I think he might be right." Emma told her sadly. She looked to her friend, hoping for some form of wisdom. "How...how could I have missed this?"

Just then, Cat opened the bathroom door, poking her head around.

I need to get dressed now." She told them. Gia just handed her the clothes.

"Mom called you a cab." Gia informed her. "I'll see you out in a minute."

As Cat closed the door to get dressed, Gia just wrapped her arm around Emma, holding her close.


	9. Planning the Plant Assault

The following morning, the Rangers assembled in the command centre. Troy had allowed them to go home to rest up, but had instructed them that they needed to assemble in the Command Centre for an urgent briefing. None of them questioned the urgency. The news that Vrak had the ability to create more mutants was incredibly bad news for the team. At best, it would mean that they wouldn't actually be reducing the numbers of mutants, since Vrak would be able to recoup any losses by turning more animals or humans into mutants. At worst, if he found a way to mass-produce the results, then they would be facing an entire army of mutants before they knew it. Regardless of what stage he was at with his research, it presented a threat that needed to be dealt with.

Troy, Jake, Jordan, Gia and Emma were waiting in the main chamber, while Noah and Tensou were in the holding chamber. Troy looked up as Noah came into the room, carrying a device in his hands, that seemed to have blood on it. Emma drew into herself, looking away. Gia just leaned in, whispering reassurance in her ear. Now that she knew about Noah's feelings for her, she worried about how she could be around him. She had spent months in much the same situation, pining after Troy, believing she didn't have a shot with him, but in her case, it had worked out. For Noah though...thinking about it now, he had seen Troy and Emma together for the last few weeks. Thinking about how he had been isolating himself from the group, she now felt truly awful. It had to be like a punch in the chest every time he saw them together.

"What's that?" Jake asked, gesturing to the device in Noah's hand. Noah just put it down.

"As near as we can tell, it's some kind of control device." Noah informed them. "The shields around the Command Centre blocked the signal, so we're sure that Vrak can't use it to find the Command Centre. Now we've removed it, and we've studied it, it looks like Vrak intended to use it to keep Tarantaulus under control."

"So that was attached to his brain?" Gia asked, looking slightly nauseated by the thought. Noah just nodded to confirm her suspicions.

"Tensou built a suspended animation chamber." Noah told them. "He'll be held in a chemically induced coma while we run tests. It means he'll be comfortable until we find a way to turn him back. After that, the authorities can deal with him."

"What about the information we were looking for?" Troy asked him. Noah just looked to him.

"He confirmed that he was taken to the plant, that was where Vrak changed him." Noah told them. "So, it looks like if there's anything to find, it'll be there."

"The plant?" Jake asked. He wasn't the only one who looked worried about this news. Even without the prospect of Vrak mass producing mutants, they still weren't exactly sure how many mutants there were. Even one was often a problem; going to the plant meant that potentially they had to face an army of mutants. It wasn't something anyone was looking forward to, but they knew it needed to be done.

"It could have been worse." Jordan said with a shrug. "It could have been on the Warstar Flagship."

"By now, Vrak will no doubt know that his creation has been defeated." Gosei declared as he projected a holographic map of the plant, and the surrounding land in the centre of the room. "We can only presume that the only reason he has not produced and sent out more of his new mutants is because he does not yet have the means to do so at present."

"That means the time to act is now." Troy stated with authority. "Now, we know that mutants live all around the area of the plant, but given the power levels we read coming from the plant, it looks like some of them live there."

"That's a lot of land to cover." Jordan said as he observed the map. "The terrain isn't friendly either. The main road and this field here's open ground, if we approach that way, they'll see us coming a mile off."

"Given what happened at the field trip, that's not an approach I like the sound of." Jake commented. "If we can avoid a pitched battle with the entire Toxic Mutant Army, I think that would be for the best."

"These woods and the swamps should provide cover." Troy suggested. "It'll be slow going, and we'll need to be careful, but it might work."

"But, this is their home." Emma reminded them. "They live there; they hunt and graze there all the time. Taking them by surprise there will be..."

"It'll be difficult." They heard a voice saying. A second later, a man wearing black trousers, and a red jacket, bearing the symbol of the Order of the Claw stepped out of the shadows. He was followed closely by others, similarly dressed, but in different colours. "But not impossible."

"Theo?" Gia asked, recognising the Blue Ranger. He just smiled.

"It sounds like a pretty big mission." Theo answered. "I figured you guys could probably use a few extra pairs of hands."

"We have a bit of experience with stuff like this." The stranger in Red stated. "The name's Casey, Jungle Fury Red Ranger. You've met Theo; the others are Lily, RJ and Dominic."

"Troy." Troy introduced himself. "The others are Gia, Emma, Jake, Noah and Jordan."

"Pleased to meet you all." Casey replied. "It's always a pleasure to help out another team."

"So, do you have any input on how we should proceed?" Troy asked. Casey approached the map, and looked at the display. "Wow, this kind of makes your set-up look primitive."

"It worked didn't it?" RJ asked defensively.

"You have to admit, it did look a little like a yard-sale gone wrong." Lily teased him, putting her arm around RJ. He just laughed and nodded.

"Alright, I don't want to tread on anyone's toes, but I have some suggestions." Casey began. Troy just gestured to him to continue. "Alright, fourteen of us moving in on the place in one front is only going to attract attention. We may as well roll up to the front door with a marching band."

"Fourteen?" Gia asked, looking around. "Five of you, six of us...I only count eleven."

Casey just stood up and approached her, putting his hand on her shoulder, giving her a knowing smile.

"You've obviously never heard of the Spirit Rangers." He answered.

At the plant, Vrak tried and failed yet again to gain a signal from the device he had linked up to Tarantaulus' brain. He had always intended to keep a tight leash on his new creations. While he had sold the Mutants on the idea that he could give them the ability to create more of their kind, he knew that it would be foolish to unleash a number of powerful creatures without some method of control. If nothing else, he was preparing himself for the eventuality that the Toxic Mutants might one day become a threat that would need to be removed, and allies would be helpful in that instance.

He knew that Tarantaulus had been defeated, he had established that from his tracking systems, but he also knew that the Rangers hadn't destroyed him. He had always banked on their lack of ruthlessness preventing them from delivering the coup de grace on a creature they knew had at one time been a human, even one that had caused them considerable harm. However, after they teleported, the signal simply disappeared. He couldn't track the whereabouts of his creature any longer. The thought had occurred to him that they would take Tarantaulus back to their lair, a location that thus far had remained impossible to locate, but it seemed Gosei had the foresight to ensure that such attempts to track his creature were fruitless.

Bluefur came stomping into the lab, followed closely by Biggs. He clamped a massive hand down painfully on Vrak's shoulder.

"Your creature has failed." Bluefur growled. Vrak just shrugged his hand off angrily.

"All science has setbacks; this was just the first stage in the process." Vrak told him. "As I keep reminding you, this process is complicated."

"I don't see the complication." Biggs answered sarcastically. "Make more mutants."

"Well, if it's that simple, let's see you do it." Vrak replied, stepping aside and gesturing to the lab equipment. "Go ahead, be my guest."

Biggs just backed off a little way. While the Toxic Mutants were intelligent, their minds mutating to the point they were now easily of human intellect, none of them understood Vrak's technology. It was doubtful anyone on Earth really understood his technology; so much of it was alien, that even most of the Warstar didn't understand it, just the way that Vrak intended to keep it. He intended to remain indispensible for as long as possible to all the factions involved in the war for his own protection.

Warstar had, at one time, been a single planet, one with a very aggressively expansionist and imperialistic nature. They had, across the centuries, expanded their territory, firstly across their whole Solar System, and then started to search further out for new worlds and peoples to conquer.

The secret to their success, however, was not in petty, brutish violence, but in recognising strength where it existed. They did not merely wipe out the populace of the planets they conquered, unless they found its inhabitants to have nothing of value to their expansion. They preferred instead to subjugate and rule over them. Some worlds even voluntarily submitted to the Warstar rather than risk a bloody conflict that would devastate their people. Vrak was a noble of his home planet, who had sold his services to them in exchange for sole command over his home world. The price, he delivered the still-warm heart of the previous king, his own father, to Admiral Malkor personally. It was a small price to pay to ensure that his own destiny, to one day take control of the universe for himself, would come to pass. He had already sold his father's life and his home world for his goals, selling the Mutants would mean nothing to him.

"I didn't think so." Vrak replied.

"Fine, then YOU make more mutants!" Bluefur instructed him. This was the uncomfortable part of the plan, the part where he had to stall for time. The truth was that the combination of chemicals he used to create his new mutagen was very unique, and complex. He had only had the time to make enough to create Tarantaulus as an experiment. To create more would take hours, perhaps even days until he found a way to mass-produce it efficiently, not to mention he had to ensure that he didn't churn out his new mutants faster than he could create his control devices.

"It will take some time, but I will work on it." He assured the leader of the Toxic Mutants. Bluefur just growled in disapproval, before turning and leaving. Biggs followed him.

"His creation has failed, and yet we still allow him to order us around with such disrespect?" Biggs demanded of his master. "We should..."

"We need him for now." Bluefur told his subordinate. "Make no mistake, if he betrays us, he will meet his end, but we know the destructive power of the ships that he brought here. We have no means of even reaching those ships, much less damaging them."

"But..."

"The day will come when they will move on." Bluefur put down flatly. "When that day comes, we will have the world to ourselves at last."

Outside, about half a mile from the plant, a few Loogies were patrolling near the edge of a stream. Another thing that annoyed the mutants was the encroachment of the Loogies on their land, but Vrak had reminded them many times that his research was at a critical juncture, and that the lab needed to be protected at all costs. Although there were plenty of mutants around, Vrak still insisted on constant patrols, and had brought in his own forces to do so, freeing up the mutants to continue their foraging.

The creatures all jerked around as they saw a small wake appearing in the stream. It was quite a calm stream, with very little in the way of a noticeable current. The wake suddenly grew larger, forming a triangular shape, and starting to move towards them, gaining speed.

The Loogies readied their blasters as the wake gained speed, closing in. A figure burst forth from the depths, leaping high into the air over them. It was a Ranger, but one they hadn't seen before, one dressed in a white and cyan uniform, and carrying a pair of swords. Before any of them could get a shot off, the mysterious Ranger cut all three of them down, before falling to a knee and surveying the woods for any sign that he had been seen.

Jordan and Noah strode forth out of the stream, coming onto the bank by his side. Jordan just looked to the Ranger.

"Nice work." He complimented the Shark Ranger, but he got no reply. He looked to Noah. "Friendly, isn't he?"

"There's no one in the suit remember?" Noah groaned, before activating his communicator. "Position one, ready to proceed."

"Position two, checking in." Gia added as Casey and Jake finished dispensing with a couple of sentries deep in the woods. "We're ready when you are."

"Position Three, checking in." Lily reported, just as the Elephant Ranger and RJ returned to us. "We're just waiting on..."

"We're in position." Troy interrupted her, cutting down a Loogie with his team by his side. Emma, the Bat Ranger, and Theo had gone with him for an aerial assault on the area, coming in fast from the south. "Alright, we don't know what we'll find when we get there, so proceed with caution. Dominic, are you ready?"

"Trust me; causing a ruckus is something of a speciality." He replied from his position on a cliff, a little way from the Plant. He summoned up his Rhino Blade, activating its blaster mode, and aimed it for the Plant. "I'm ready whenever you give the word."

"Alright guys, close in." Troy instructed the team. "Remember, stay quiet. There's no point picking a fight until we have to."

"Not a problem." Casey assured him as the teams started to make their way through the foliage. "Last one there buys dinner."

"You're on." Troy replied with a smile.


	10. Mega Fury

At the Brainfreeze, Cat and Luen were starting to notice the place becoming busier as it headed towards midday. The morning coffee business had passed, and now kids were looking for their fix of sugary treats before heading out into the glorious California sunshine.

The take-away business was really taking a hammering in the better weather. No sooner had Cat served one customer, than another was in her face throughout the day. She looked to Luen, who was just as busy.

"Are you sure Theo and Gia are on an important errand?" She groaned. "We could really use the help."

"Sorry Cat, it's just us." Luen replied. He knew fine well where they were, and what they were doing. Theo had brought in the whole team to help out with the assault on the plant. He was a little concerned when Theo told him that his team were going to be coming out of retirement for a time, but he figured it was best that they take care of the possible threat of a new mutant army before Vrak managed to create it. If that happened, he had a feeling then their retirement would have to be a whole lot less temporary. "I'm sure they'll come back when they can."

"I never knew there was so much that went into running a cafe." She replied as she took another order, starting to scoop ice-cream into a container. "Ernie always made it look so easy."

"Tell me about it. If I live to be a hundred, I'll never figure out how RJ and Fran manage by themselves." He replied. "Sorry, that was six dollars sir."

Back at the plant, the Ranger teams made their way into position a short way from the plant. The four teams had worked their way through the forest, making sure that they kept the noise to a minimum. They still had no idea what they'd be facing inside the plant. Casey, Gia and Jake all arrived at their final checkpoint, within eyeshot of the plant's perimeter. Casey smiled as they arrived.

"Well, it looks like we're first." He commented, tapping Gia on the shoulder. "Tigers rule right?"

"Woods are our natural hunting ground." Gia replied with a smirk. "So, what are we up against?"

"It looks like two mutants at the door." Casey informed her. "As near as I can tell...we have a crow and...a pigeon."

"Even one mutant's a tall order." Jake replied. "Where's everyone else?"

"We're in position." Lily chipped in, taking up position with RJ and the Elephant Ranger. "It looks like we've got a clear run at the North entrance, but RJ thinks there's something off."

"Probably best to trust our instincts on that." Troy added, as he, Theo, the Bat Ranger and Emma got to their position. "Noah, what's your status?"

"In position." Noah added as he, Jordan and the Shark Ranger finally arrived. Noah pulled out a large device. "Spider might have been good with improvised explosives, but this thing should be more than enough to take care of a lab."

"Um...OK, where did you get that?" Jordan asked him, eyeing Noah suspiciously.

"It's just something I whipped up in my garage." Noah told him. Jordan just shook his head.

"I don't know what's scarier, the fact that you can make plastique in your garage, or that you did it in an evening." Jordan stated.

"Alright Dominic, whenever you're ready, let her rip!" Troy ordered. On the rocky outcrop overlooking the plant, Dominic readied his blaster.

"Alright, here we go." He answered, firing off a salvo and blasting down a wall at one end of the plant. Mutants started to spill out in a panic, some of them fleeing into the woods. Bluefur came staggering out with Biggs and Vrak, looking up and seeing Dominic in the distance.

"A Ranger!" He roared, pointing up. "You dare...?"

"Yeah, I dare." Dominic called back. Bluefur gestured to the Crow and Pigeon mutants.

"I don't care who this new Ranger is, bring me his head!" Bluefur snarled. The two mutants unfurled their wings and took Bluefur and Biggs both snapped around as they heard a battle cry. Casey, Gia and Jake all broke cover, rushing towards them, carving a path through Loogies as they went. They snapped around to see Lily, RJ and the Elephant Ranger flanking them, while Troy, Theo, the Bat Ranger and Emma all dropped in on them from above.

"It's an ambush!" Biggs screamed. "Fall back..."

"The big one's mine!" Jordan called out as he rushed into the fray, slamming into Bluefur and carrying him through a wall, into the plant. The Shark Ranger attacked Biggs, keeping him at bay, while Noah took advantage of the confusion and ran inside, carrying the bomb. Vrak saw him, and ran in after him.

"Hey Casey, it looks like my team was the first in!" Troy called out as he held off his attackers. "I guess that means dinner's on you!"

"Whatever." He responded as he powered up his Jungle Chuks, sending energy waves out, blasting down his opposition. "What say we survive this first?"

"Sounds like a plan." Jake responded.

Back at the Brainfreeze, Cat and Luen were still getting over-run by customers when Quinn came in for the lunchtime order for the wildlife centre. She rushed over to the counter.

"Give me the remote!" She called out.

"Um...why?" Cat asked.

"Haven't you guys heard? There's a major Ranger battle going on at the old chemical plant!" She rushed out. "There's a news copter shooting footage live!"

Cat gave Quinn the remote for the large screen TV, allowing her to turn it to the news channel. Just as she had said, there was an aerial view of the battle.

"Wait...that isn't just our Rangers." One of the other customers stammered. "That's...that's the Jungle Fury Rangers!"

"Turn it up!" One of the others called out, taking a seat. Cat and Luen watched as the customers all turned, their eyes glued to the screen.

"They're...they're going all out." One of the customers stated. "They've gone right into the Toxic Mutants' territory!"

"That's insane!" Someone else shrieked.

"Come on, it's the Jungle Fury Rangers, they kick ass!" One of the older customers stated. "They took out that huge dragon thing a few years back. I'll bet you the biggest sundae in the place that they take down all the mutants today!"

"Are you serious? Against every mutant there is?" Someone else asked him. "They'll be lucky to make it out alive!"

"I'll take that bet." Someone else stated.

"Please, the Megaforce Rangers are way better. If anyone's going to finish this, they will." Someone else stated. "I'm betting they take down the last mutant."

"Hey, did any of you see what the Robo Knight just did to Bluefur?" One of them asked. "I call first blood to him!"

"OK, you guys HAVE to start showing Ranger footage in here more often." Luen told Cat as he took some more orders. "This is great for business!"

He noticed that Cat wasn't paying attention, her eyes glued to the screen. He just went over, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Cat?" He asked.

"Sorry, I was just...um..." She stammered, shaking her head. "Sorry, I'll get back to work."

In the plant, Noah made his way through, ducking an errant blast as Jordan and Bluefur kept each other busy. He knew he probably wouldn't have long, and he needed to be sure that the lab was destroyed. It wasn't enough to just bring down the building; he needed to be certain that nothing was left.

The plant was large, and it was difficult to navigate, since it had been abandoned long ago, and much of the structure was aging, and some of it was broken and crumbling. The battle outside, and the stress placed on the building by Bluefur's battle with Jordan didn't help matters.

Seeing some heavy duty piping heading the same direction, a thought occurred to him. The furnace rooms! They were the most heavily structured areas of the building. Any of the existing power cables would run through there. It was a natural place to put the lab, being the most protected section of the plant.

He made his way through, using his Shark Bowgun to blow the door off the furnace rooms. As he made his way inside, he found that he had called it. He had found Vrak's lab. As he clamped the first block of plastique to some lab equipment, Vrak blasted him across the room, smashing him through some lab equipment. Noah struggled back to his feet.

"I always suspected that Admiral Malkor spent too much time worrying about the Red Ranger." Vrak commented. "Even that fool Creepox was obsessed with him; it was easy to get him out of the way. I didn't even have to lift a finger, just point him in the right direction, and he ran to his own doom."

"Yeah, people who go after Troy tend to end up that way." Noah replied. Vrak was about to take the block of plastique, when he noticed something and withdrew his hand.

"A motion trigger?" He asked. "So, I was right, you aren't here for the mutants after all, this is all about my research."

"It's armed." Noah told him. "You can try and remove it if you want, but I wouldn't recommend it."

Vrak just glared at Noah. He knew that the process of creating new mutants would be a huge threat to the Rangers, that was why he had protected it so jealously. Unfortunately, as part of his plan to keep himself indispensible, he had ensured that only he had access to his research. Everything he had on his process was in the lab.

He looked up as Noah sprinted to another part of the lab, diving to avoid another power blast. He clamped another block of plastique to what appeared to be a computer bank. He saw some large blast doors, and figured that was where they had kept Tarantaulus. It seemed likely that was a vital part of the process. He rushed in, being carried through by a blast that his suit only barely kept at bay. He saw the pod before him, and clamped the final block of plastique to it. He then pulled out a detonator, and grabbed it, pressing in the lever. He held it up for Vrak to see.

"I'm guessing you're not the kind of guy that likes to share credit." Noah told him. "Which is why I'm betting you haven't risked backing up your data anywhere else in case Malkor managed to find it."

Vrak just paused as he heard this. Noah was right, he couldn't risk keeping the details of his process on the ship, in case Malkor or one of his followers figured out how to access it and use the process themselves. It was only through virtue of the fact the mutants had no grasp of such advanced technology that he could risk keeping the data here. He aimed his weapon at Noah.

"I wouldn't do that, this is a dead man switch." Noah told him. "I let go of this lever, the plastique blows and we both go with it."

Vrak weighed up his options. Noah had played the situation perfectly. It was pointless to try and attack, it would only result in both of their destruction. Noah ran from the room, at which Vrak followed him. He ducked as Jordan flew overhead, slamming into a girder and falling to the ground.

"Jordan, we're hot!" Noah called out. "Time to book!"

Jordan just yelled in frustration. His battle wasn't going well. Bluefur, the most powerful of the Toxic Mutants was more than he could handle, and he knew it. He'd spent the last several minutes being battered from pillar to post. It angered him that he couldn't get the job done. It was the first time he had faced Bluefur since he had taken control of the Robo Knight Armour.

"Jordan, let's go!" Noah called out again. Pounding a fist into the floor, Jordan got up and ran. Vrak wasn't far behind them, closing the blast door to the furnace room, and looked to Bluefur. Seeing him run, Bluefur could guess that it was an indication he should do the same.

"Everyone out!" He roared as he ran from the plant. The mutants all scattered, as did the Rangers. Shortly afterwards, a huge blast could be heard, which shook the whole area. Dust billowed out from the plant, filling the air.

"Whoa, you weren't kidding about that plastique." Jake complimented his friend, helping Noah to his feet. Noah just shrugged.

"If something's worth doing, it's worth doing big." Noah replied.

"The mutants are running, but they'll be back." Casey replied, seeing that they had left behind a legion of Loogies to cover their escape. "Dom's tough, but..."

"Go and help him, we'll finish up here." Troy interrupted him. Casey just nodded, at which his team ran off to catch up with Dominic.

Back at the Brainfreeze, the customers cheered as they saw the mutants fleeing into the woods. One of the customers just shook his head in disbelief.

"What are they doing out there?" He asked. "The mutants are getting away!"

"Did you see how many there are?" Luen responded as he gestured to the screen. "I'm sure if they could have finished them, they would have."

"The Jungle Fury team have cornered a couple of the mutants." Someone stated. "It looks like..."

Just then, the crow and pigeon mutants exploded. There was another huge cheer from a large section of the crowd. Others just groaned, preparing to pay up on their bets.

"Look, those bat things." Cat gasped. Before long the crow and pigeon mutants towered over the forest.

"Well, now we finally get to see the current Rangers in action." Someone said with a smile. "Bring on the Zords!"

Cat just watched the screen, seeing the news footage starting to focus on the huge mutants now. She couldn't see what was happening to the current team. Luen just threw a dish towel at her to attract her attention.

"Cat!" He called out. "People want stuff!"

"Kay kay." She replied, starting to get back to work.

Back at the site of the battle, Troy and the others were busy with Loogies when the mutants grew. Gia got onto her communicator.

"Gosei!" She called out. "We need..."

"Hold off for a minute." Troy told her with a smile. "Something tells me they have this covered."

"They...they still have Zords?" Jake stammered. "But...I thought most of the old teams Zords were destroyed!"

"It appears not all of them." Gia replied with a smile as she pointed to the skyline. The Rhino Steel Zord, Wolf Pride Megazord and Jungle Master Megazord all came into view. "I count three Megazords!"

"So, the old timers get one last rodeo." Noah responded.

"It looks like it." Troy answered as the last of the Loogies fell. "Come on guys, how often do we get to learn from the pros?"

At the site of the battle, the Rhino Steel Zord grabbed the leg of the pigeon mutant, slamming him into the forest floor as he tried to take to the air. It readied its sword.

"Got to admit, it's been a while, but it feels good." Dominic commented, readying the control dagger.

"You said it." RJ agreed, slamming kicks into the crow mutant, crippling its wings with the shin blade.

"Let's see if I still have it." Dominic called out as he powered up his blade. "Rhino Steel Blade!"

He cast the energy symbol, paralysing the pigeon, before one final slash destroyed it utterly. He smiled and held up the control dagger.

"Oh yeah, the Rhino's still got it." He said with a grin.

The Jungle Pride Megazord smashed the remaining mutant, powering up their massive fists. As it exploded, they all called out in excitement.

"You know, I don't miss Dai Shi, but you've got to admit, it feels good to be back in the game." Casey stated. "I don't think Troy will mind me stealing his line, but Rangers, that was a Mega Win."

After the battle, the Rangers all arrived in the Brainfreeze, finding the place packed. Gia and Theo took off their jackets, heading for the counter.

"Wait, aren't you going to join us?" Casey asked. "I mean, we do have to celebrate..."

"And we have a business to run." Theo reminded him. "Luen and Cat will probably need a break."

"Oh, come on, surely you can stay for a few minutes." Casey replied, putting an arm around Gia. The Yellow Ranger just looked to the others, before removing his arm.

"OK, for one thing, I'm only 17." She reminded him. "And for another...I already have a girlfriend."

"Wait a...oh." Casey replied. "Well, who knows, maybe in another reality?"

"Maybe." She answered. "In this one, you'll have to make do with buying my friends a round of shakes to start."

"What?" He asked.

"My team reached the plant first remember?" Troy teased him. "Time to pay up."

"Me and my big mouth." Casey stated. "OK, so...what's everyone having?"

As they all ordered, Theo noticed that Emma was staying away from Noah, and that he was also very quiet. He could see the way he looked at her; it was something he was all too familiar with. He looked to Luen.

"Sorry to do this to you bro, but would you mind?" Theo asked. "I have something I need to deal with."

"Sure." Luen sighed. "Go do your Ranger thing."

Theo went to Noah, and tapped him on the shoulder, before gesturing to the back. Noah just followed him, taking him into the store room.

"You did well today." Theo complimented his successor. "Your plan went well."

"Yeah, it worked out better than I expected." Noah answered.

"Listen, stop me if I'm out of line here, but do you mind if I give you some advice?" He asked. Noah just shrugged.

"Sure." Noah replied. "Anything you can tell me that helps..."

"It sucks what you're going through with Emma." Theo interrupted him. "But seriously, you need to just let it go."

Noah just looked at him.

"What..."

"Look, I know what it can be like to watch someone you love with someone else." Theo told him. "You know Lily?"

"Yeah." Noah responded.

"Well...we've been friends for...like...forever. For a long time, I wanted a lot more from her than that." Theo began to tell him. "It was only after we were finished with Dai Shi I finally plucked up the courage to ask her out."

"And she was with RJ?" Noah asked him. Theo shook his head.

"Not exactly, in fact...we went out for a few months. We even moved in together. For a while we were even talking about getting married." Theo informed him. "But, in time, I messed it up. I never believed I was good enough for her. I always wondered why she was with me when she could have anyone. I just got insanely possessive and jealous whenever she was around anyone else. In the end, she just couldn't take it anymore and broke up with me. She said she just couldn't live with me anymore and moved in with RJ."

"Ouch." Noah commented.

"For a long time, I was so angry and bitter; I thought RJ was taking her away from me." Theo continued. "I ended up losing two of my best friends over my jealousy. It was a long time before I was able to realise that RJ never took her from me. I drove her away. It took a long time, and we're friends now, but it's not the same. Sometimes, I think it never will be."

Theo just looked to Noah sympathetically.

"I can't tell you what'll happen in the future between you and Emma, or what won't." Theo told him. "The one thing I can guarantee though is that jealousy is something that will very quickly leave you without friends. Take it from someone that knows, if you think things suck now, it'll only get worse if you don't let it go."

He patted Noah on the shoulder.

"I...I need to talk to them." He replied sadly. "But not today. Today, I guess it's kind of cool that we have another team to hang out with."

"Hey, there is such a thing as too much time with your own team." Theo warned him. "We all lived together when we were active. Trust me; RJ's place isn't that big."

"That sounds like there are stories there." Noah chuckled. Noah just smiled.

"Oh, there are stories alright." Theo told him, putting his arm around him as they headed back into the main room.

Gia was working hard with Cat and Luen, taking care of the last of the customers. Now that the news footage was over, most of the kids were getting back to their outdoor activities. Cat came over to Gia with something in her hands.

"Here." She announced, handing it over with a big smile. "I made this for you."

Gia just looked at it. It was a sundae, but it was made only of banana ice cream, with stripes of chocolate sauce over it. One scoop at the end was decorated with chocolate buttons for ears, and raisins for eyes and a nose. Pieces of banana made the legs and tail, making the whole thing look like a tiger. Gia just looked at it for a moment, smiling.

"Um...thanks Cat." Gia replied. "This is...really something."

"I thought you'd like it." Cat answered. "I made it with you in mind."

"I can tell you put a lot of work into it." Gia stated.

"I know you like tigers, and I know you like yellow." Cat stated, before drawing closer. "And I think the yellow spandex is really flattering."

Gia just froze, and looked to Cat as she heard her say this. She just saw the way Cat was looking at her, and knew it was already too late to be convincing if she denied it. She looked around.

"Cat, can you stay after work?" Gia asked her. "There's something I think we need to talk about."


	11. Gia Tells All

Gia had unfortunately had her fair share of difficult conversations over the last few months. It was, if anything, becoming something of an unfortunate habit. She had to open herself up again and again, allowing herself to become vulnerable more than once. The hardest was when she found herself having to stand in front of Emma, and admit to her that for a long time she had been in love with her.

In some ways, she didn't really understand why she found this difficult. It was like baring her soul had become a regular occurrence, but for some reason, she still felt a little guilty, a little ill, as she tried to steel herself for the conversation she was about to have with her girlfriend Cat.

There were a few things that occurred to her, one of them was guilt. It wasn't so long ago; she'd had to convince Cat to stop writing comics which depicted herself and her friends as the Rangers, since they were unerringly close to the mark. She had to lie to Cat's face, and infer that the reason she'd convinced her to give up her stories was for her own good, to keep the fact that she hadn't yet come out a secret. That seemed like a lifetime ago, but she worried about what Cat had to be thinking. Surely if she'd figured out that Gia was a Ranger, that she had figured out her desire to stop her writing the comics was self-serving.

She also worried what Cat had to be thinking, given the fact that only days ago; she'd been kidnapped by a monster because she was connected to Gia. She always dreaded that eventuality. At least when she was still obsessed with Emma, she always knew that Emma was a Ranger too, and could take care of herself. In the short time she'd known Cat; she'd been beaten to a pulp by a homophobic classmate, torn up by a nail bomb, and most recently, kidnapped by a monster that as near as she could tell would probably have eventually eaten her. A part of her wanted to tell Cat to just turn and run as fast as she could, to tell her to get out while she still had her life, but another part of her just felt like the whole world would be a little less bright, like there would be less to fight for if Cat wasn't in her life. Although they'd only been together a short time, Gia already couldn't bear the thought of letting her go.

As Cat's shift finished, Gia was waiting outside the Brainfreeze for her. The Jungle Fury team were still talking with her team, laughing, joking, and exchanging stories. She looked up as Cat came out; straightening out her hair after taking it out of the scrunchie she needed to wear while she was working.

"Cat, can we...go somewhere?" Gia asked her. Cat just nodded enthusiastically and followed Gia, until they found themselves in an alley. Gia had to check around to make sure no one else was around. "Alright Cat, go ahead."

"I'm right aren't I?" Cat asked her. "You're the Yellow Ranger."

Gia knew that by now it was pointless to deny it. Cat had already figured everything out; she clearly just wanted to hear it from her. Gia just nodded, and pulled out her morpher.

"At the beginning of the year, I was taken from the brainfreeze." Gia told her. "I was given this, it's called a morpher, with it, I can access my Ranger powers. I've been a Power Ranger now for nearly six months."

Cat just looked at her for a moment.

"Cat, please say something." Gia begged her, becoming scared. She couldn't imagine what Cat had to be thinking, casting her mind back. She hadn't wanted to, but she'd lied to Cat several times as a result of the whole deal. Cat eventually just took the morpher and smiled.

"So, how does it work?" Cat asked. Gia came closer.

"Um...I'm not sure really, Gosei never bothered to tell us too much about it." She replied honestly. Cat just looked at her.

"Gosei?" She asked. Gia just nodded.

"He's an alien from the planet Eltar." She explained. "He was a student of another Eltarian called Zordon, who called the first Ranger team. He said that he'd been gathering his power here, and he called us to take up the battle for him."

"He's an alien?" Cat asked. Gia just sighed.

"Look, I don't get half of this either, I know it sounds insane, trust me, even I have doubts if any of this is real." Gia continued. "He made five of us Rangers. He told us he was charging us with the use of his powers to fight off the Warstar."

"So...he's an all-powerful alien, but he gave that power to you and your friends to use instead of fighting himself?" Cat asked. Gia just laughed.

"Yeah, it does sound pretty insane when you put it like that." Gia replied. "Apparently he can't live on this planet without some form of technology keeping him alive. We've only ever seen him as...well...a face in a wall that looks like that."

Cat just looked to the morpher as Gia pointed to it.

"God, I can't believe how ridiculous all this sounds saying it out loud." Gia confessed.

"What about the Robo Knight?" Cat asked her. "What about...?"

"We're not too sure about that either." Gia replied. "Gosei told us that Zordon made it centuries ago, and it binds itself to a human. Jordan's the Robo Knight, but none of us really know how it works, not even him."

She looked to Cat, seeing her sitting on a short wall, slightly dazed by everything she'd heard. Although she had figured out who the Rangers were, the whole story, or at least, what Gia understood to be the whole story did sound more than a little out there. Aliens, ancient trans-galactic wars, grudges that had existed longer than anyone believed the human race had existed? It all was a little hard to swallow. If it wasn't for the fact she was living it, Gia was sure she wouldn't believe it.

"So, these give you the power?" Cat asked, looking to the morpher. "So...anyone could..."

"I don't think it works that way." Gia told her. "I don't get how it all works, but Gosei made a point of telling us he chose US. He said he specifically chose us because of our...um...well, he said some stuff about each of us, but he said it was because of our gifts."

"I can't believe it." Cat giggled, before looking to Gia. "I'm in love with a Power Ranger!"

"Wait...you're...you're not mad?" Gia asked her. Cat just looked a little confused.

"Mad?" She asked. "Why would I be mad?"

"I lied to you!" Gia reminded her. "I lied right to your face; I put you in danger, I..."

"I get why you did it." Cat assured her, stepping closer and softly caressing Gia's cheek with her hand. "I appreciate it, I don't mind. Just...let me share it in future OK?"

"Cat, I..."

"That spider thing would have taken me if I knew or not, just because I know you." Cat reminded her. "Please, just let me be a part of this. Let me be a part of you."

"Cat..." Gia was about to protest further, but seeing Cat's huge, bright eyes, she couldn't resist. She eventually just nodded. "I'll try to..."

Gia then paused. She felt her last breath leave her body, and looked to Cat. She just stared, completely aghast.

"You...you said you were in love with me." Gia stammered. Cat just came closer, bringing a hand around behind her head.

"Are you surprised?" Cat asked her, as she pressed her lips to Gia's.

**A/N: **It was unintentional, but I AM aware this is a short chapter. I am winding up, because soon I am taking a short vacation. My updates will be a little sporadic, but I WILL continue the story! Hope you enjoyed it!


	12. Noah's Speech

Troy was up early the following day. He always was. He was always up long before the sun rose, even in the summer, when the sun was often up before six in the morning.

He'd never really understood it, in a lot of ways he still didn't, but he'd always felt a heavy sense of responsibility, a sense of duty that drove his whole life. He'd started training in Martial Arts from an early age, partly because he'd been badly bullied as a child, but going on from that, he just found...something that rang true with him.

It was like his dreams. It was something that...he never really understood. All his life, he'd had these dreams. For a long time, it was just every few months or so, he would have a particularly vivid dream that was just...so real. The first time he noticed, was when he was ten years old, and living in Turtle Cove. The time he had dreamed of meeting the Wolf Ranger wasn't really too surprising, everyone dreamed of the Rangers, but when he and his parents found themselves caught in the middle of a battle, when every detail, right down to the heat of the explosions and the smell of burning was so familiar...it was then that he realised that he had already been there in his mind.

For a long time it scared him. Hell, it still did. He didn't know why he saw things that hadn't happened yet. He didn't know why in all the world, he was the one that saw these things. He didn't understand where these dreams came from or why. At one time, very early on, when he first explained to his parents that he saw things that hadn't yet happened, he was terrified. They were too. They sent him to a few different doctors, not really knowing what else to do. It was clear that they were scared when he was able to tell them where and when a new Ranger team would form. It wasn't his fault, he didn't know what any of this meant, but it was clear his parents feared for his wellbeing. In time, he just stopped talking about it and let them believe it was just a phase, that it was something he had grown out of.

"That's great." Casey complimented him as he blocked his last blow. The Tiger Master had agreed to come out with him into the woods. It was something of a Ranger tradition that any time there was a team-up that the veterans left the newbies with a training session, with some lessons and wisdom to part with. It was just another thing that freaked Troy out though. As soon as he'd seen the Jungle Fury team...he just knew who they were. He recognised them; he had seen them before, even though he had never physically met them. "You're good."

"I try." Troy told him. "Sometimes I really have no idea what I'm doing."

"You're saying that to me?" Casey chuckled in response. "When I was called up, I'd been at Pai Zhua for a week, I was a towel boy! I didn't know what I was doing either."

"But...it worked out." Troy replied.

"It did." Casey replied. "But it was a pretty bumpy road getting there. Just...know things happen for a reason."

Just then, Noah arrived.

"Noah?" Troy asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Can you give us a minute?" He asked. Casey just nodded.

"It's probably about time I was heading anyway." Casey told him. "It's a pretty long drive back to Ocean Bluff."

As he left, Noah stood, staring at Troy. The Red Ranger took a deep breath.

"Noah, what I said..."

"Please, just...let me go first." Noah told him. "You already called the fact that there's an atmosphere between us, you already gave me an out to tell you what it was about. I was just too proud and stubborn and angry to take it."

"I'm guessing that's no longer the case." Troy stated. Noah just took another deep breath.

"Troy, I'm in love with Emma." He admitted. Troy just looked at him. It was something he had some suspicions about, but for some reason, despite his gift/curse of premonition, he wasn't able to see and be certain about. "I...I've been in love with her for a couple of months."

"Noah..."

"I'm sorry, I just...things like this don't happen to me." Noah told him. "I saw a lot of things about Emma I really liked. You have no idea how insane I was going when she was with Spider."

"I have an idea." Troy replied. He too had been insanely jealous when Spider had been going out with Emma. Troy was always an introvert; he was always very self-contained, largely because of the gift/curse of his dreams. When HE didn't really understand them, and his parents had basically sent him to psychiatrists who thought he might be showing early signs of schizophrenia, he had become somewhat reluctant to talk too much about his feelings and what he was going through. Any time he did, it seemed like it just got him into more trouble. That said, Emma had something about her that was just...right. He'd never hidden his dreams from her. She was the one he always talked to about them.

"I love her, and that's why I just want her to be happy." Noah assured him. "It sucks that she doesn't feel the same way about me that I do about her, but that's my problem. It shouldn't be hers, or yours."

Troy just took a seat on a tree stump as Noah started to pace.

"I've got to admit, this whole thing drove me insane." Noah told him. "I hate what this has done to me, I hate that I resent what you have with her, but...I guess, I love the fact that she's happy."

"You don't know what it means to me to hear you say that." Troy replied, getting up. Noah just looked at him.

"I want Emma to be safe and happy. I need her to be." He answered. "And while it sucks that won't happen with me, I like to think I know enough about you to know that...you'll do anything to make sure that she is."

"Noah..."

"When I hugged that bomb, when I took it...I did it because I didn't care what happened to me. I didn't know if I'd survive." He admitted. "But...that didn't matter. If she got through it I'd have been fine with it. I know you feel the same way."

"Thanks." Troy replied, genuinely grateful for Noah's admission. He already knew there was an issue, and he genuinely wanted to resolve it, and make sure that they would be able to work together. "I mean..."

"Emma means the world to me." Noah told him. "I know you're bigger than me, I know you're stronger than me, and I know that you know way more about Martial Arts than I ever will if I live to be a hundred."

He stepped closer.

"Take care of her, and make sure she's safe and happy." Noah warned him. "If you don't, you'll have hell to pay."

"I think I can live with that." Troy replied, offering Noah a handshake. Noah stood, looking at his hand for a moment, before accepting it. He did genuinely hate the fact he knew that Emma had made her choice, and it wasn't him, but he loved her so much, he was able to accept her decision.

In another part of town, Jordan was in the basement of his house, working out in the gym his dad had set up for him in the basement. Throughout most of his life, his dad had worked in the military, and was often away from home for months at a time. They didn't really have a traditional father/son relationship as a result. His dad was more of an...Acquaintance.

His mom had died in childbirth, meaning it was just Jordan and his dad for most of his life, as much as it could be. His dad had buried himself in his work when he lost his wife, and constantly accepted every high-profile assignment that came along. Until a couple of years ago, when he was old enough to look after himself, he had been left with a string of carers that the military paid for. For the last couple of years though, when they figured he could look after himself, he was generally left on his own. It was something that many kids his age would think sounded ideal, sounded fantastic on paper, having a seemingly limitless bank account, all the gadgets and toys he could ever ask for, and no supervision, but there were many times he had wished all that would disappear, just to have more time with his dad.

He was burning with anger, with hatred. He knew that he was behind the others in his development. He was on the back foot from day one. Although he had wanted to be a Ranger, he had wished for it with every fibre of his being from the minute he arrived in Harwood, he had quickly found that it was never going to be like his dreams. It was like every time he thought he was taking a step closer to becoming the hero he wanted to be, to gain the acceptance and the pride he desperately wished for from the world, that something came along that slapped him back down to reality.

The previous day, he'd been part of a major battle, one that involved more than one Ranger team. It was the kind of thing he should have treasured, should have held close to his heart, that one day he might make into a story to tell his kids or even his grandkids, but there was only one thing that kept echoing in his mind over and over again. He had confronted Bluefur...and been defeated.

Jordan's grip on the bar of the multi-gym tightened so much his knuckles turned pure white. He didn't expect to get everything right away, but this was different. He'd been confronted by an enemy, and not only had he been defeated, but even with the power of the Robo Knight armour behind him, Bluefur had, without exaggeration, wiped the floor with him.

Jordan got off the bench and went to the heavy bag, throwing a couple of punches into it. It was a humiliation he couldn't get over. Bluefur had defeated him without even trying. He had smashed him into oblivion. He had...he had taken everything Jordan had ever worked for and flushed it down the toilet without really trying.

His punches slammed into the bag, faster and harder as his humiliation washed over him. He was the Robo Knight, he was a Ranger, he was a hero, someone that the world depended on, and he had failed. He was a failure, a nothing, a nobody. The armour had the power, it was him that was failing. As he threw a hard roundhouse kick into the bag, the armour formed around his ankle and foot. The bag exploded, spilling sand onto the floor. Jordan's eyes flashed with an unnatural light as he stared at himself in the mirror.

"Never again!" He growled.

**A/N:** The end of this story, I'll begin the next one once I come back from my vacation, I just wanted to leave this at a good place. One that answers a few questions...and if I'm doing my job as a writer properly...leaves enough that you'll WANT to read the next story!

Thanks to all my loyal readers and reviewers.


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